His Soul Reflects My Own
by Raberba girl
Summary: High school outcast Hiccup is just as eager to drive away the invading aliens as everyone else in his world is - then everything changes when he manages to capture a Night Fury. Modern sci-fi AU; NOT told in chronological order.
1. HTTYD1: This Is Berk and New Tail

His Soul Reflects My Own

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

**A/N: This story ought to be a multi-chapter, but since I don't have time to write multi-chapters anymore, I'm going to be writing and posting scenes out of order, and I also may never finish it. Sorry. :/**

**Also, I know that half the HTTYD fanfiction out there are basically retellings of the first movie. A lot of them are **_**good**_** retellings, but still. Sorry for yet another one. ^^;**

**This is a modern sci-fi alternate universe. The dragons are mostly in human form, but they still have wings, tails, etc.**

**Just like in canon, the main pairing is PLATONIC Hiccup/Toothless, with some Hiccup/Astrid romance on the side.**

**THIS IS WHAT I DID. I stuck all of dragons' dialogue into an automatic translator and then used the results for their speech ._. It works fine if you don't speak those languages; but if you happen to know any of them...just pretend it's fluent, okay? *facepalm* (Ftr, I tried putting the dialogue back into the translator the opposite way - and a lot of the lines ended up the exact opposite of what I'd meant them to be. X'D [For example, something like "I can't kill you" became "I'll kill you."] Whatever.)**

o.o.o

**Chapter 1 - "This Is Berk"**

The attacks often came at night. Hiccup was up late doing homework when he heard the first explosion, and alarms began wailing across the city.

"HICCUP!" he heard his father bellow from downstairs, "STAY INSIDE!" The front door slammed shut before Hiccup could even answer.

Rolling his eyes, the fifteen-year-old dashed around the house drawing the fire-blinds, then, instead of using the tunnel like he was supposed to, he yanked on his boots and ran out into the night, heading for the laboratory down the street.

It was chaos. Soldiers and police were rushing to their stations, shouting for the screaming civilians they passed to get to safety. Hundreds of wing beats sounded from overhead; floodlights were bursting to life, illuminating the sky full of attacking aliens.

Except for the wings and tails, the creatures looked creepily human, but humans couldn't point their hands and gush fire the way these things did. Their flying and anatomy might have been picked apart by scientists, but even after all this time, no one had a real explanation for the fire, other than magic. It was one of the things that made people think that the dragons - nicknamed after fire-breathing creatures from old myths - didn't come from another planet, but must have somehow crossed over from another universe entirely.

"Aaahh!" Hiccup dodged as a wounded dragon crashed to the ground almost right in front of him. It snarled at him like an animal, prompting Hiccup to leap back; a soldier jumped to his side and shot a disruptor point-blank into the dragon's neck. It howled, then fell back with a dazed, unfocused expression.

"Get inside, Hiccup!" the soldier barked at him.

"Y-Yeah, I'm going!" Hiccup ran on, and nearly crashed into a police officer within the first five steps. Hiccup regained his footing and swerved to take a shortcut between two houses. He discovered, upon rounding a corner, that one of the houses was on fire; a man was handing a sobbing little girl out the window to her mother and then scrambling to get out himself. "Anyone else inside?" Hiccup called.

"No, that's all of us!" The man frowned as he recognized Hiccup. "You're not supposed to be out here!"

"I know, I know! I'm going!"

Hiccup eventually made it to the laboratory in one piece, where scientists were rushing around almost as chaotically as the fighters outside.

"Hiccup!" his father's friend Gobber called from the ground floor coding station, "About time you showed up! I thought you'd been blown up."

"Who, me?" Hiccup grinned as he threw himself in front of the closest computer and logged in. "Not a chance. They've got better targets to focus on."

"Yeah, because you're too small for them to even see."

"Ha ha ha." Hiccup sighed and drummed his fingers on the tabletop as he waited for the sequencing program to load. "Now, see, if you guys'd just let me experiment a little and see if I can improve the-"

"_Oh_ no, you already cause enough trouble as it is, we don't need you fiddling around and wiping out our entire virtual defense system!"

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't destroy the-!"

"Why can't you just do as you're told, Hiccup? You're a great coder. We need you to _code_, not waste time on crazy theories."

"If I'm such a great coder, how come you guys never actually let me write anything?" Hiccup grumbled. The program was finally up and running, and he settled in for a long, boring night of copying sequences and printing disruptor shots. _'Seriously; we get attacked by magical flying aliens, yet the most interesting part of my night is the walk between here and my house, which is the only time I ever even see them. So not fair.'_

Ten minutes later, the lights went out. The surge protectors began screaming, allowing a few minutes for everyone to get their work saved. There was a deep rumbling sound as the backup generator started up.

Then an explosion rocked the building, and everything went completely dark, computers and all.

"Right." Amidst the panicked cries of the other researchers, there was a shuffling sound as Gobber got to his feet. "I'm off to join your dad, then. _Stay put_, Hiccup."

"Yeah, I'll just hang out here where I'm sooooooo useful."

"I mean, it Hiccup! You are _more useful_ in here, _doing nothing_, than you'd be if you were outside, where you'd be helping the dragons wreck Berk!"

"You guys talk as if disaster automatically rains from the sky the second I ever set foot outside!"

"Because that's pretty much what always happens."

"It is _not_!"

"Sorry I don't have more time to chat, but I gotta go. Hold down the fort here, okay?"

"You mean the pitch-dark fort where I can't see my hand in front of my face or take a step without falling over?"

"Yep, this one. I'm off!"

Hiccup listened to him go. Then he stood up, took the pocket flashlight from his belt, turned it on, and made his way to the storage room where he'd been keeping his latest invention for just such an opportunity as this.

xXxXxXx

**Chapter "New Tail"**

xXxXxXx

The dragon was probably starving... He was so busy gobbling down food that he barely seemed to notice Hiccup creeping behind him to fiddle with his tail. Hiccup approached the job with extreme wariness at first, spooked by every small movement and stealing frequent glances to check on the dragon's reactions. However, when it became clear that Hiccup was going to accomplish nothing by being too hesitant, he finally resorted to sitting on the tail to keep it still enough for him to attach the replacement fin.

Even Hiccup was surprised by how perfect the match was. He spread the prosthetic, comparing it to the organic fin opposite, and felt a little glow of pride to see how close the designs were. _'Don't count your chickens before they're hatched,'_ he reminded himself. _'Still have no clue if this thing will actually work.'_ He looked up at the dragon, and froze. Toothless was crouching utterly still, staring at him with an unreadable expression. "Uh...yeah, so, don't mind me back here; I'm just, uh..." Hiccup staggered clumsily away.

Toothless flipped the end of his tail up into his hands to inspect it, frowning as his ran his fingers down the connecting rod and across the brown fabric. "Ọ bụ ọdụ?" he murmured to himself. "Aghọtaghị m, didie ke enye odu...?"

"Ummm...so, yeah, I kind of need to...work on your wings now..." Hesitant again, Hiccup approached and reached out to touch the closest wing. Toothless instantly folded it in close and hissed at him. Hiccup winced. "Toothless...come on." He held up his equipment as if it could explain itself. "It's all right, buddy, I'm not gonna hurt you."

Toothless continued to glare.

Keeping his eyes fixed on the dragon, Hiccup moved close again, took hold of the edge of the wing, and tugged. It didn't budge. Frowning, he pulled harder. A minute later, he was yanking as hard as he could in frustration, as Toothless kept giggling and sidling out of his reach as if he thought it was a game.

"Toothless! Come _on_!" Hiccup finally picked up the jar of medical sealant and brushed a glop of it over his own arm. "Look, it won't hurt you, see?" Hiccup waved the jar in the dragon's direction. Toothless finally sighed and grudgingly extended the wing.

It soon became clear that Hiccup was not going to be able to work like this. Even if Toothless had stayed _still_ (which he didn't), it was impossible to do the sort of work he needed to do without the wing being braced flat against something. "Okay...Toothless, I'm gonna need you to lie down."

There was no response. Hiccup pushed at the dragon's shoulders, and when Toothless simply sat there and frowned at him, Hiccup demonstrated. "Lay down like this, all right?"

Toothless just looked at him, idly twitching his tail.

Hiccup sighed, sat back up, and pushed at the dragon again, hard. Toothless barely moved, and finally started to growl at him. _'_Why_ do I have to be such a weakling?'_ Hiccup thought in frustration. "Just lie down, Toothless! I _promise_ it won't hurt if you just cooperate!" He gave one last shove.

Toothless suddenly flopped down, startling Hiccup so that he almost toppled down on top of him. He managed to catch himself in time, but then he gasped as he felt the dragon grip his hips tightly, both thumbnails pressed right up against the flesh of his stomach hard enough that Hiccup could barely breathe. He stared down at Toothless. The dragon lay there with a defiant expression as if to say, _"You wanted me on the ground, so here I am."_

"Toothless," Hiccup choked out, "let go..."

Toothless didn't move. Hiccup finally realized that the dragon, deciding to let himself be vulnerable to a human, was now taking precautions to make sure he wouldn't be exploited. No doubt he was strong enough to pierce straight through flesh and drag out an organ or two before Hiccup could cause much damage. "Aaarrgghhh..."

Hiccup had intended to perform this operation from above the wing where he'd be at an ideal angle. Instead, he had to do it in the exceedingly awkward position of straddling the dragon's waist, stretched out uncomfortably in order to reach the injuries, with claw-like nails painfully poised to gut him the second he made a mistake. "Wonderful...man, this is just...so _not_ what...argh."

Couldn't be helped. Hiccup drew in a lungful of air, trying to find a breathing rhythm that didn't hurt, then leaned down to get to work. He had to smooth out the wing several times before Toothless stopped resisting him. "Toothless, keep it _still_, it has to be as flat as possible."

He was soon so absorbed in his work that he forgot to notice both the pain and Toothless's intense, worried stare. Hiccup used a small brush to gently clean the area around the first tear, then drew out a sheet of synthetic skin. He laid it over the wound and applied sealant all around the edges, taking his time and frequently re-smoothing the synskin so that it wouldn't wrinkle, yet wouldn't be too tight after the sealant had dried. When he finished treating the largest tear, he moved on to the next. He noticed absently (and gratefully) that although Toothless still held him warily, the dragon's grip had relaxed a bit so that it no longer hurt to breathe. "Just hang in there, Toothless, we're almost done with this wing..."

When it came time to move on to the next wing, Toothless sighed, but submitted to the treatment more willingly than he had the first round. By the time Hiccup got him to turn over on his stomach so that he could seal the opposite sides of the tears, Toothless had stopped bothering to hold Hiccup hostage and now looked almost bored as the human worked. Hiccup was greatly relieved to be able to work from a more ideal position this time. "That's it, just a little more, bud...almost done..."

When Toothless was finally allowed to sit back up, he shook his entire body like a dog and then flapped his wings several times, looking pleased.

"_There_. How's that, huh?"

Toothless gave him a little grin.

"Good. So, uh...now that the easy part's over, let's get to the hard part..." Hiccup cautiously reached for the chip behind the Night Fury's left ear.

The dragon's reaction was instant - he snarled, snapped his teeth at Hiccup's hand, and fled.

"Toothless!"

Hiccup spent the next hour chasing him around the storefield. When Toothless finally found refuge in a niche too high for Hiccup to climb to (not that he didn't try), Hiccup was forced to give up. "Well, this whole trip was _completely and totally useless_..." he grumbled as he headed back home.

xXxXxXx

Toothless wasn't waiting for him as usual the next afternoon - at least, not out in the open. Hiccup, wandering around the storefield calling Toothless's new name, gasped when the dragon finally pounced on him from behind. Toothless yanked the food out of his hands and retreated to eat it, glaring at him the entire time.

_'Well, aren't we off to a lovely start...'_ Hiccup took a deep breath. "Toothless, we've got more work to do today."

Toothless growled softly.

"Toothless. Hey." Distraction wouldn't work this time, since the dragon's attention was still fixed on Hiccup despite the food. Hiccup decided he would have to wait until the dragon finished eating. As Toothless was peering into the basket, looking for more, Hiccup slipped up beside him and reached for the chip again.

In an instant, Toothless had seized his wrist, holding it immobile. Hiccup automatically brought up his other hand in a defensive gesture, and Toothless seized that, too. He growled.

"Toothless, I promise, I _will not hurt you_."

"Kedu ihe ị chọrọ? _Kedu ihe ị chọrọ?_ Aga m egbu gị ma ọ bụrụ na ị na-agbalị merụrụ m, mmadụ."

For a while, they were at a stalemate. Then, Toothless, mistaking Hiccup's growing boredom for acquiescence, let go of him. Hiccup gritted his teeth and reached for the chip again.

Toothless snarled and seized him, gripping both of the human's wrists in one hand and wrapping the other around his throat.

"Toothless," Hiccup gasped out, "I'm trying to help you, please...!" The fingers were squeezing, cutting off his breath. "Toothless..."

Just when he'd decided that the dragon really was going to strangle him to death, Toothless suddenly released him, only to throw him to the ground, kneel over him, and grip his head in both hands. Hiccup felt a rapidly growing intense heat and realized that he was about to get his head blown off. "_Please_! Toothless...!"

The moment held. And held. Hiccup knew it didn't take nearly this long for a dragon to fire; was Toothless hesitating again? He swallowed and licked his lips. "Toothless, listen to me. I'm trying to help you. I-"

Toothless's hands abruptly grew cool. He braced them on the ground on either side of Hiccup's face and leaned in very close. "M ike igbu gị. Oge ọ bụla m na-agbalị, ihe akwụsị m. Ma, ọbụna ma ọ bụrụ na m ka ị na-ebi, m ga-ekwe ka ị ize m, mmadụ."

Hiccup listened helplessly, unable to understand a word the Night Fury was saying. "Toothless." He reached up to rest his hand on the right side of the dragon's face, opposite the chip. "Please trust me. Please."

Toothless removed his hand, got to his feet, and walked away.

"Toothless!" Hiccup scrambled up and hurried after him. "Toothless, you don't have a _choice_! Unless I can get you to fly again, you are _trapped_ in here. With no food. _I'm_ the only thing keeping you alive right now, don't you understand that?!"

The dragon simply glared at him.

Hiccup reached for the chip again, without hesitating this time. Toothless grabbed his hand. Hiccup reached with his other hand. Toothless seized it, too - then twisted Hiccup's arm with terrifying ease, making him scream. Fighting the pain, Hiccup met the dragon's eyes and refused to look away until Toothless finally let go. Once again, Hiccup reached for the chip, only faltering a little bit when Toothless gripped his throat again. He kept reaching until his fingertips finally, _finally_ came to rest on the tiny knob just beneath the dragon's skin.

Toothless bared his teeth and squeezed harder, but for the first time, Hiccup realized that his expression was one of fear, not anger. The whole thing would be moot if Hiccup passed out or died, but either way, he couldn't bring himself to hate this dragon.

Then Toothless let him go.

Hiccup just stood there for a while, maintaining his connection with the chip but focusing mostly on trying to get his breath back. Toothless's narrowed eyes were fixed on him the entire time. Then Hiccup reached to gently turn the dragon's head so he could see better; Toothless fell back entirely, trying to back away. Hiccup was obliged to follow him as he tried to hold on. "Toothless, it's okay-"

Toothless backed right into a tree and gasped in surprise; then, when Hiccup still refused to back down, he pressed the side of his face against the rough bark, unable to get away from Hiccup any farther than that, and finally squeezed his eyes shut.

"I know you're scared, buddy, I know you're scared," Hiccup murmured, gently brushing locks of the dragon's black hair out of the way and then very carefully nudging the chip into receiving mode. Toothless whimpered. "I'm not going to hurt you...I promise, I'm not going to hurt you..."

Of course Hiccup had never seen a Night Fury chip before. It was a little different than the ones he was used to working with, but similar enough that he thought he would still be able to do this without making any mistakes or causing any damage. "Okay...let's see what we've got..."

The security level was shockingly low. After he'd taken far less time than he'd expected to hack through it, Hiccup wondered if it was a trap. But a quick scan showed that nothing had gone amiss with his own files, and he wondered if perhaps Night Furies were so dangerous that it was assumed they didn't _need_ a high level of security. "Okay...so now, flying sequence, where's the-" He froze when the first thing he came upon was the kill record instead. He looked at the numbers and swallowed. Then he very carefully closed the file without touching it, and continued searching for the one he needed. _'He's a Night Fury. Of course he's... Of course he's deadly. He...just because he's been kind...sort of...to me, doesn't mean he-'_

The flying sequence was completely shot. Only a few scraps of code at the edges were still readable, and Hiccup was afraid to even touch them for fear of what the attached corrupted data might do to Toothless in his agitated state. Hiccup couldn't afford to take anymore risks than he had to. "Okay...okay, so we'll just quarantine this here...there we go, and then...you ready, Toothless? This is the new one, here it comes..."

Toothless reached up in a panic to grip Hiccup's shoulders as the new flying sequence was uploaded, but he didn't make a sound and he didn't move other than that.

"It's okay, Toothless...it's okay, bud, it'll be okay..."

Upload complete. Hiccup felt breathless with triumph as he carefully closed everything, nudged the chip back into standard mode, then stepped back with a huge smile on his face.

"AKPỌRỌ GỊ M ASỊ!" Toothless screamed at him, and fled to his niche.

Hiccup's smile turned wry as he watched him go. "Okay...no flying today, I guess..." He sighed and scratched his head. "Fine, I'll give you some time to get used to it." He raised his voice. "But we ARE flying someday, Toothless!" His voice fell to a mutter. "Because you can't stay in here forever..."

xXxXxXx

The second Hiccup stepped into the storefield, a blow sent him reeling. He was seized before he could fall and then struck again, and he finally registered the dragon gripping the front of his shirt with one hand, the other hand rearing back for another punch.

Hiccup had already thrown his hands up over his face in defense. "Wait, Toothless-!"

Toothless shook him. Then he threw him to the ground, and Hiccup tried to scramble away; Toothless seized the back of his shirt and jerked him halfway back to his feet, dragging him past the reservoir. Then he threw him down again.

"Toothless, wait, wait, _please_...!"

Toothless knelt, planting a knee on Hiccup's chest to pin him. Hiccup cried out in pain and struggled, but of course the dragon didn't budge. "Amaghị m ihe mere m anabataghị gị. Amaghị m ihe mere na anaghị m nnọọ igbu gị. Ị bụ onye na, egwu mmadụ. Gịnị mere unu bụrụ naanị nkịtị otú ahụ ka m nwere ike igbu gị?"

Hiccup was gasping for breath. As beatings went, this was pretty tame compared to what Snotlout and the twins often put him through, but of course it still wasn't fun. "Toothless, please, I- Is this about the flying sequence? I, I know it-" He finally noticed that Toothless looked a bit battered himself. He was covered with scrapes and dirt and bruises, and his hair and strange clothes were disheveled. "Tooth-?"

"_Kedu ihe ị chọrọ_?!" The dragon seized Hiccup and shook him a little, which was painful since his knee was still pressed into Hiccup's chest. Tears began to leak from the corners of his eyes.

_'Dragons can cry?!'_ Hiccup thought in astonishment.

Then Toothless let him go. But instead of moving away, he knelt over Hiccup and leaned down close with his neck stretched out. "Dị nnọọ igbu m." He closed his eyes. "Kwụsị otụhọde m; biko dị utịt a nhụsianya."

After a moment, Hiccup cautiously put his hands on the dragon's shoulders and pushed him away. Toothless sat back and watched dully as Hiccup dragged himself to sit upright. "Toothless...have you been trying to fly while I was gone?" The Night Fury didn't so much as twitch in response. "Toothless..." Feeling sad, Hiccup took hold of the dragon's hands. They lay limply in his own. "Toothless, it- I can't, I'm not one of your own technicians, I barely know what I'm doing. All I know, I learned from people who had to piece everything together from what we've- From you guys." Even though Toothless didn't seem to understand his language, Hiccup couldn't bring himself to say aloud that other dragons had been experimented on and killed in the very same laboratory where Hiccup worked every day. "I- I don't know how to fix your chip for real. And I just, I just want to say that I'm _really, really sorry_ for shooting you down in the first place."

Toothless continued to stare at him in that resigned, uncomprehending way.

"Toothless..." Hiccup gently set his fingertips against the dragon's chip. Toothless closed his eyes but didn't move. "I...I can help you fly if...if you give me access to this thing. I think I can do it- I'm _sure_ I can do it, if you give me a chance. I just...I don't know how to fix it for real, bud. I'm really, really sorry."

"Na-eme ka ị na uche," Toothless murmured.

Hiccup climbed to his feet, then tugged until Toothless stood up, too. "Okay...okay, just let me get the first aid kit and clean us up a bit, and of course you'll be wanting lunch...then we can give this another shot." He smiled hesitantly, but the dragon's expression did not change. "Agh, Toothless, please don't hate me..."

Toothless's mood seemed to improve once he'd eaten. Though he hissed at the sting of the antiseptic, a few minutes later he actually _purred_ like a cat and stroked his face against Hiccup's arm as Hiccup tended to his small injuries.

"Heh...cut it out, I'm trying to work here..."

At last came the moment Hiccup had been waiting for. Human and dragon stood facing each other, Toothless watching him warily. "Okay, bud. It's, um, gonna work like this, I guess, because I can't figure out any better way to do it. I tried it with a remote, but the range is too short..." Hiccup stepped closer and slowly put his left arm around the dragon's neck so that he could reach the chip. Toothless growled at him a little, but didn't resist. "Okay..." Hiccup nudged the chip into active mode. Toothless craned his head in a vain effort to look at it. "Okay...Toothless..." Wincing at, yet again, how awkward this was, Hiccup wrapped his other arm tightly around Toothless to cling to him.

Toothless stared at him. "Nso ke ibe ya na ị na-eme?"

"Okay, Toothless. So, um...fly."

"..."

"Like, now."

"...Ara mmadụ. Na na-eme ka ọ bụla uche."

Hiccup sighed. Then he shifted his fingertips to activate the flying sequence.

Toothless gasped.

"Yes," Hiccup murmured. "Try it again. But you have to keep-"

Toothless spread his wings and started to fall into a crouch. He gave the clinging Hiccup an annoyed look.

"Toothless don't drop me don't drop me you need-"

Up. Hiccup couldn't help yelling, and instinctively tightened his grip; then he had to remember that he couldn't cling with his left hand, he had to concentrate on maintaining the flight controls. "Aaaahhh...!"

The upper boundary. Toothless braced himself to break through. Hiccup gritted his teeth and poised his fingers, getting ready. He was very pleased to find that even though Toothless seemed to blank out for a second from the effect of the crossing, the flight itself remained steady. "_Yes_...!"

Toothless shook his head and opened his eyes to find himself free of the storefield for the first time in days. He stared around. His ears perked up. Then he looked at the human clinging to him, desperately trying to maintain their hover, and Toothless frowned. He took hold of Hiccup and yanked him away.

"TOOTHLESS, _NOOO_...!"

Without Hiccup to keep the flight sequence running, both boys began to fall out of the sky. Toothless shrieked in horrified confusion; by a complete miracle, Hiccup's flailing hands managed to catch hold of the dragon's tail as he plummeted. Toothless screamed again, this time in pain and fury, and flapped his wings mightily to slow their fall. Then he hit the storefield's upper boundary and blanked out again; dragon and human crashed into the reservoir together.

Their fall had slowed enough to where Hiccup wasn't injured even when he hit the bottom of the tank, but it still hurt, and it was a struggle to get back to the surface. Then he had to thrash his way over to the dazed Toothless and drag him back to solid ground.

Toothless blinked back to full consciousness. He looked at Hiccup, soaking wet and shivering beside him. He looked around at the storefield where he was once again trapped. "AKPỌRỌ GỊ M ASỊ!"

"We did it! We _did it_! Of course there's a bunch of kinks to iron out, but for a first run, that was awesome! We _flew_!"

Toothless snarled at him and rushed off to his niche to sulk.

"Awesome awesome _awesome_, now if I can just get more data to add some more functions and fine-tune the controls..."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I've been working on the next (and hopefully last) installment of _He's Not Dangerous_, but it's more of a pain to write than usual because I'm having to constantly reference the first installment. I was also working on another _Welcome To Our World_ story, but it's difficult to write and feels a little like pulling teeth. Then there's the HTTYD fic I'm working on in one of my notebooks, but that one has bad flow and needs to be typed, anyway; and I also made more progress on Medli's contest prize, but the inking is harder than usual because there are _so many dang pencil marks_ that it's hard to tell which ones I'm supposed to ink. DX Drawing is so hard...

Anyway, so I've been frustrated by all my current projects, and I just wanted to draft something that would flow and be easy, and I've had a lot of ideas knocking around in my head, so I chose this one. :/

Honestly, this story is two separate ideas - there's a random high school AU scene that kept playing through my head that I wanted to write, and had actually intended to write, but it would take place during the _Riders of Berk_ timeframe. I realized that it would fit well in the universe of this plunny, but of course it would make more sense to write at least some of the HTTYD1 stuff first. So I actually started with the most vivid scene in my head, which was "New Tail;" but I figured that, even though I _am_ gonna write and post this fic out of order, I ought to at least write the opening scene to introduce it with, so I also drafted the first part of the first chapter.

Soooo...yeah. As always, this fanfic is a mess. I love fanfiction; I don't have to worry about doing my best, I can just use it as a creative outlet as I struggle with more important projects. ^^;;;;;


	2. Interim: Braids

_**His Soul Reflects My Own**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic series by Raberba girl**

**Braids (rough draft)**

_Dedicated to Medli45_

Summary: Hiccup soon gets tired of his best friend's new favorite pastime.

**A/N: This is a one-shot in this universe that takes place sometime between HTTYD1 and HTTYD2.** (Toothless has learned Norse/English/Whatever by now, though he still speaks his own language to other dragons sometimes.)

o.o.o

Toothless's hair was getting long. Hiccup first noticed it one evening when they came in from flying and Toothless spent several minutes complaining to himself as he tried to push the tangled, windswept locks out of his face.

"You all right there, bud?"

"Can't see," Toothless pouted. "Blech."

"Then comb it, man."

Which was all well and good, until the next time they flew and then came back with Toothless's hair a total mess again. "Can't seeeee!" he wailed as they came into the house.

"Here, you want me to cut it for you?" Hiccup went to fetch a pair of scissors out of a drawer.

"NO!"

Hiccup stared at his overreacting friend. "...I'm just going to cut your _hair_, not _you_."

"NO BLADE! _NO_!"

"Fine, fine! Here, look, I'm putting the scissors away!"

Astrid and Stormfly came over later that evening to hang out. The humans put on a movie and then spent more time chatting with each other than watching it, as Stormfly dozed on her partner's shoulder and Toothless drew dragon-pictures in the notebook Hiccup had given him.

"What did you draw, Toothless?" Astrid asked with an affectionate smile when she noticed the Night Fury holding up the notebook in order to admire his work.

"Give Hiccup fish," was the reply.

The humans stared at the page full of random-looking squiggles. "That's...a picture of you giving Hiccup a fish?"

"_No_. Give; give back to, is your human _polite_."

After a very confused pause, Hiccup finally smiled and reached out to ruffle his friend's hair. "It's a great picture, bud."

Toothless purred and nuzzled Hiccup's palm. "Is good picture," he agreed in satisfaction. "Is good human. I like my human _very_."

"Huh. Your hair _is_ getting long, Toothless," Astrid noticed, running her fingers through it. Toothless absently nudged her hand away. "Hiccup says it's getting in your face and annoying you."

"Annoying. That Dog is annoying," Toothless said, referring to the next door neighbor's noisy pet. "Hiccup says don't kill it. Blech."

"Maybe if you tied it back," Astrid said thoughtfully, gathering the dragon's hair into a ponytail. Stormfly, having lost her pillow, shuffled around to fall back asleep on Hiccup. Toothless shrank away and tried to hide behind Hiccup too, but Astrid came after him and finally squeezed him with her knees to hold him still. Toothless made a displeased whimper at Hiccup.

"She's just braiding your hair, Toothless. It's fine," Hiccup assured him.

"Astrid is pulling my hair," Toothless grumbled. "I like it but I don't like it, stop, I want my Hiccup, I don't understand it's strange I don't like it..." When Astrid had finished braiding his hair and released him, Toothless patted at his own head and felt down the length of his hair. "What is it?!"

"She just tied it back for you, Toothless."

"Now it won't get in the way when you fly," Astrid explained.

Toothless's eyes widened. "Fly. Go _now_."

"What? Wait-" Hiccup had already been seized by his dragon and was now being dragged toward the closest window. "Wait, Toothless, it's the middle of the night, Dad's gonna...!"

"Flying!" Toothless chirped, pressing Hiccup's hand to his computer chip. "Flying~"

"See you in a bit," Astrid called.

"Astrid, come _on_...!"

Toothless was _delighted_ with the effect of his new flying hairstyle. Now, every time they went flying, he pestered Astrid to plait his hair until she got tired of it, so then Hiccup demonstrated that he himself could also braid hair. That soon became tiresome as well, so Astrid finally sat Toothless down and taught him how to braid hair himself.

"One over, three over, two over," Toothless said happily to himself as he worked on a disgruntled Hiccup while Astrid supervised. "One over, three over, two over." He stared. "No more?!"

"Here, this is how you fasten the end," Astrid said, handing him a hair tie and showing him how to use it.

"Finished!" Toothless said in excitement when the braid was complete. He took hold of Hiccup's face and tipped it back until they were staring eye to eye. "Braid is finished. I did good."

"Yes, you did," Hiccup sighed, bent uncomfortably backwards. "Now please let go of me, and please don't make this a habit..."

Unfortunately, Toothless didn't listen. Not satisfied with confining his new skill to his own hair, the dragon enjoyed practicing on Hiccup every chance he got. Hiccup couldn't work on homework or on his computer or anything, really, without Toothless sneaking up to start trying to twist his hair into plaits.

"I'm serious, Toothless, CUT IT OUT."

"'Cut it out' means stop?"

"_No more braids_ for Hiccup. Braids for _Toothless only_," Hiccup said sternly.

"I don't like it," Toothless pouted. "Want to braid on Hiccup."

"No braids on Hiccup!"

"I don't like it!"

"Too bad!" He had an idea. "If braids on Hiccup, then _no flying_!"

Toothless gasped in outrage. "No! Hiccup says BAD words!"

"I did say I was serious," Hiccup said smugly. When Toothless was silent, Hiccup resumed the math homework he'd been working on.

The Night Fury sat on Hiccup's bed and stewed for a while. Then a thought occurred to him, and he narrowed his eyes. A wicked grin came to his lips as he got up and went over to his best friend and put his arms around him and leaned to murmur into his ear. "Toothless no flying," he purred, "_Hiccup no flying too_."

Hiccup froze. Although he technically _could_ fly with any dragon, the others weren't like Toothless who depended on him for flight. If Toothless told them not to accept Hiccup on their flights, then Hiccup would be just as grounded as the Night Fury. "...I hate you."

Toothless giggled. "I win."

Now it was Hiccup's turn to narrow his eyes. He pushed the dragon's arms off his shoulders, swiveled around in his chair to face him, and said firmly, "If Toothless give braids to Hiccup, then Hiccup _very not happy_. Sad, angry, upset, mad at Toothless."

Toothless stared at him. Then he wailed, "Nooooo!"

The corner of Hiccup's mouth quirked wryly, since, to tell the truth, it worked both ways - he hated seeing his dragon upset, too. He put a comforting hand on Toothless's arm. "You can still braid _your_ hair. Okay? Just not mine."

"Braid," Toothless said sulkily. He went to curl back up on Hiccup's bed, hugging one of the pillows with his face buried in it. Hiccup sighed and went back to his homework.

Toothless managed to be good for two days. The morning after that, Hiccup awakened to feel something warm and heavy draped over him. "Toothless," he moaned without opening his eyes, "I _told you_, you sleep in _your bed_, not mine..."

He felt Toothless sit up. "Hiccup is awake," the dragon said happily. "_Good morning_, Hiccup." He planted his hand right on Hiccup's face so he could shake the human's head back and forth.

"Toothless!" Hiccup shoved and kicked at him until Toothless finally climbed off the bed. "Go away!"

"Time for food. _Now_." Toothless roughly ruffled Hiccup's hair and then padded out of the bedroom.

Hiccup sighed and tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. He felt uncomfortable, as if his head was tight. He finally yawned and sat up, reaching up to run a hand through his hair as he did so.

He froze. Then he felt at his hair with both hands in confusion and growing dismay. His entire head felt hard and spiky. "TOOTHLESS!"

The dragon came bounding back into the room. "Hiccup! Time for food!"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HAIR?"

"I made good braids to Hiccup." Toothless climbed back onto the bed and adoringly rubbed the side of his body against Hiccup's, as if he was a cat.

"I SAID NO BRAIDS FOR HICCUP. Did you braid my _entire head_?! What is-?! Toothless! ARGH!"

"Good braids." Toothless approvingly patted both his hands over Hiccup's hair.

Hiccup batted him away. "YOU BRAIDED MY _ENTIRE HEAD_. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"Time for food!" Toothless closed his teeth on Hiccup's sleeve and wrapped both arms around his chest and started trying to drag him out of bed.

"I'M ANGRY! I'M UPSET!"

Toothless paused and gave him a worried look. Then he smiled. "Is _not true_. Hiccup says a human _lie_. Stop that. Come eat food with me, be strong for today."

Hiccup burst into the hysterical laughter he'd been trying to hold back. "You are crazy, you are a crazy dragon, what is _wrong_ with you, you goofy, crazy idiot..."

Unfortunately, it turned out that he'd slept through his alarm again and therefore hadn't woken up early enough to have time to fix the problem. Hiccup found some plastic to wrap over his hair in hopes of protecting it from getting hopelessly fused into a tangled mass during his shower. In a rush to get ready for school, he had to make do with a hat to hide his dragon's ridiculous masterpiece, though he knew he wouldn't be allowed to keep wearing it on campus. "Crazy, stupid dragon..."

"Hiccup thinks He is mad at me," Toothless remarked, "but Hiccup is not mad. I did good."

"Ugh; shut up and get over here."

"Time to fly~"

Once at school, Hiccup tracked down his girlfriend (who was chatting with a group of friends in the courtyard), took hold of her arm, and started dragging her away without breaking stride.

"Hiccup, what is your problem?" Astrid snapped. "Let go!"

"Hiccup is angry?" Stormfly wondered as she and Toothless trailed after their humans.

"I will show you what I did on Hiccup when He stays still," Toothless said proudly.

"I will see what you did on Hiccup when you show me," Stormfly agreed.

Hiccup dragged Astrid into the performing arts building, shut all four of them into a practice room, then dramatically removed his hat. "THIS is your fault," he announced, pointing to his head.

Astrid stared. Then she burst into laughter.

"Beautiful," Stormfly said admiringly, running delicate fingers over one of Hiccup's braids. "Is very beautiful."

"I made beautiful braids to Hiccup," Toothless said proudly. "_Me_."

"T..._Toothless_ did that...?" Astrid gasped out, starting to leak actual tears of mirth.

"Last night! Braided my _whole head_ while I was sleeping! THANKS TO _YOU_!"

"Ohhh, Toothless, you did a very lovely job," Astrid cooed teasingly as she ran her hands over the mess of Hiccup's hair.

"It is good! It _is_ good!" Toothless crowed. "Females like it very much! Hiccup should be happy, _ha ha ha_."

"This is _not funny_, Toothless!"

Toothless only purred and snuggled his face into Hiccup's neck.

"Get off me, you crazy dragon. Astrid, _fix it_!"

She sobered up. "Hiccup, the bell rings in, like, three minutes-"

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT! _Fix it_!" He was starting to sound panicked. "Please, Astrid! I can't let people see me like this."

Astrid sighed. "_Fine_... C'mere." She reached for the closest braid.

Both dragons grabbed her arms, looking alarmed. "What does Astrid do?!"

Astrid and Hiccup exchanged a look. "Sorry, guys," she said. "I have to take the braids out, okay?"

"No! No!"

"Is _beautiful_ braids, don't ruin."

Hiccup groaned in frustration. "Okay. If you let Astrid undo all the braids, then I'll buy you guys some ice cream after school."

Both dragons' eyes widened. "Ice cream?! Sweet cold?!"

"Sweet cold for me and sweet cold for Toothless?!"

"_Yes_. Sweet cold for Stormfly and sweet cold for Toothless - but ONLY if you guys leave me alone and let Astrid ruin _all the braids_." Hiccup gave them a challenging look.

Stormfly gave a regretful whimper. "I am sad," she said, "but is good to be sad if Hiccup gives sweet cold."

"Hiccup is mean!" Toothless growled. "I want sweet cold." He sat down and crossed his arms, fixing his eyes on Hiccup to make it very clear that he was pouting the entire time Astrid struggled to undo all his hard work.

Hiccup smiled in a conciliatory way. "I love you, Toothless," he said. He usually tried not to encourage such potentially embarrassing expressions of affection, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and their current audience was an understanding one.

"Hiccup tries to make me feel better," Toothless grumbled. "I want to be mad, but I love Hiccup. He is mean to me. He will give sweet cold to me if I let Him be mean."

"After school, buddy, okay?"

"I don't like it, I don't like it, Hiccup wins, blech..."

Of course they were very late to their first classes, and Hiccup's hair looked like a wild, curly mane, but it was still an improvement over the spiky mass of braids. Toothless seemed to be pleased with the new look, and was reprimanded multiple times in every single class for playing with Hiccup's hair instead of paying attention to the lessons.

That night, Hiccup took the precaution of setting three alarms for half an hour earlier than usual, just in case his dragon tried to pull the same stunt again. Sure enough, he woke up in the middle of the night to find Toothless sitting next to him, industriously twisting locks of his hair into new plaits.

"Agh, stop it-! NO. BAD TOOTHLESS."

"GOOD BEAUTIFUL BRAIDS TO HICCUP."

"_BAD_ BRAIDS. GO SLEEP IN YOUR BED AND LEAVE ME ALONE."

"HICCUP IS MEAN."

"THAT'S RIGHT. I'LL BE MEAN SO THAT YOU'LL STOP."

Then he grunted as Toothless flopped his face into Hiccup's chest and clutched him in an unhappy hug. "Whyyyy?" the dragon wailed.

Hiccup couldn't deal with this at two in the morning on a school night. "Just please be good and go to _sleep_!" he wailed back.

He was tired when his alarm clocks dragged him awake a few hours later. The very first thing Hiccup did was run his hands through his hair, and he was relieved to find that it was still properly loose. He got out of bed and found Toothless curled up in the top bunk, looking unexpectedly not-sulky.

The dragon's eyes opened, and he sat up. "Hiccup is awake. _Good morning_, Hiccup. Time for food?"

"Thanks for leaving my hair alone this time, bud."

"Hair." Toothless giggled. "I made very, very good braids."

Hiccup frowned and ran his hands through his hair again, but nothing seemed amiss. "What are you talking about?"

"Time for food~" Toothless climbed out of bed and hugged Hiccup before heading for the kitchen.

"Hmmm..." Hiccup shook his head and finally decided to chalk up the odd remark to a translation issue.

Later, as Hiccup stood at the stove with Toothless resting his head on one shoulder so as to intently watch him frying eggs, Stoick's bellow sounded from upstairs. "HICCUP!"

Hiccup instinctively cringed.

Toothless looked at him in surprise. "Dad is angry?"

"Yeah, sounds like it..." Hiccup sighed and handed the spatula over to his friend. "You think you can finish these up?"

"Eggs are too hot. Burn tongue, _ouch_."

"That's right. Don't eat them 'til they've cooled off a bit, okay?"

"HICCUP," Stoick roared again, even louder this time.

"I'm COMING, Dad!" Hiccup made his way upstairs, found his father scowling into the mirror of the master bathroom, and froze. "Oh- Oh, _no_..."

Stoick pointed ferociously at his beard, the entirety of which had been plaited into tight, uneven braids. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

Hiccup clapped both hands over his own mouth in a desperate attempt to not burst into laughter.

"DID YOUR DRAGON DO THIS?"

_'Shut up, Hiccup, get it together, _get it together_,'_ Hiccup frantically told himself. He peeled his hands away from his mouth. "D-Dad...oh, gosh, it...oh, _Toothless_..." He could feel his lips starting to stretch with hysterical mirth, and he bent down to rest his hands on his knees in order to hide it.

"HICCUP," Stoick bellowed.

"I-I'll fix it," Hiccup gasped out, "I promise I'll f-fix it, oh gosh, oh, Toothless, oh man..."

Toothless came up behind him and dragged him back upright so he could hug his shoulders. "Why is Dad angry?" he wondered. "Toothless made very good and beautiful braids. Dad should be happy."

Hiccup couldn't hold it in anymore. He squirmed around in Toothless's arms so he could bury his face in the dragon's shoulder and scream with laughter.

"I made Hiccup happy," Toothless remarked, looking pleased. He patted Hiccup's head. "I did a good job."

"GET OUT, DRAGON," Stoick bellowed, gesturing violently.

"Dad is still angry, why is he angry...?"

Breakfast was super-awkward, since Hiccup was forced to spend it unplaiting his father's beard as Stoick scowled at various reports and ate snatches of food whenever he got a chance. Even if Stoick had had the patience to undo the damage himself and had been willing to be late for work (which he didn't and wasn't), there was still the fact that his much larger fingers would have found it virtually impossible to complete the task. Simply shaving off the beard was unthinkable, of course.

On top of that, Hiccup couldn't eat his own breakfast since his hands were otherwise occupied, which Toothless grew increasingly worried and agitated about. Therefore, the dragon, utterly refusing repeated orders to "_Sit down_ and eat your own food!" instead hovered beside Hiccup, happily poking bits of bacon and eggs into Hiccup's mouth. Hiccup couldn't resist as long as he was working on the braids, unless he wanted all the food to end up on the floor, which he himself would then have to sweep up. _'So, so freaking awkward; ARGH, Toothless...'_

After school that day, Hiccup took a detour on their way to the lab. When they walked into the toy store, Toothless looked around with great interest. "Many colors."

"Don't touch anything." Hiccup marched straight to the doll aisle, found a Magic Sparkle Tower Princess! Barbie, then took it to the counter. "It's a birthday present for my little cousin," he said firmly to the giggling salesgirl.

"Birthday present," Toothless repeated. "Birthday is big gathering, very much food, many humans and _dragons_. Present is shiny thing Hiccup gives to Astrid so she will _kiss_ on Him. They will mate soon, but not yet; I don't know why."

"TOOTHLESS...!" Why, why, _why_ did he have to say these kinds of things in public...?! "Don't talk about that stuff in front of other people!"

"Hiccup is courting to Astrid." Toothless sighed. "Is taking a looooong time. When will my Hiccup and His Astrid make their human babies? Not soon."

Hiccup didn't wait for either his receipt or his change; he snatched the shopping bag off the counter, seized Toothless by the shoulders, and propelled him out of the store. "_Do not talk about that stuff in front of other people_, you're going to _kill_ me one of these days-"

"No kill! Hiccup never be kill, EVER, _ever_...!"

And then Hiccup had to calm down his freaked-out dragon and was therefore late for work.

Even though he _was_ late for work, he couldn't get started right away. Glancing apologetically at Gobber, Hiccup sat Toothless down, got the Barbie doll out of its packaging, and showed it to the dragon. "Look, Toothless. See how long her hair is?"

"Is not 'her.' Is a thing, no breathing no heart is beating."

"...Okay, whatever; you see how long the hair is?"

Toothless leaned down and sniffed the doll. "Is not hair. Is a human _lie_ thing."

"'Synthetic,'" Hiccup reminded him.

"Syn-the-tic. Not-hair. Synthetic hair?"

"Yes, but whatever. You can braid the _doll's_ hair, okay? As much as you want."

"Is not hair."

"Ugh; you can braid the _synthetic hair_ as much as you want, okay?" He set the doll down in front of Toothless. "Go on, braid it."

Toothless wrinkled his nose. "Is a syn-the-tic thing. I don't like it."

"Braid it, or I'll say that you're going to kill me one of these days."

"No! No kill! No...!" Toothless grudgingly picked up the doll and started braiding its hair. Hiccup sighed and finally went over to log into a computer so he could start work.

"Dragon trouble again?" Gobber chuckled.

"I really, _really_ hope this is just a phase, because he's driving me crazy..."

"Is very long!" Toothless shouted. "Long but too little! I like it but I don't like it! Hiccup must make His long hair so I will like _all_!"

"Just shut up and let me concentrate, Toothless!"

By the time they got home, Toothless had decided that he didn't hate the doll, but it was still lacking compared to real human hair. Since Stoick was still scowling at them both, Hiccup let Toothless work on his own hair again just to keep the peace. When the girls came over later, Toothless immediately went for Astrid's hair until she said quickly, "Wait, wait! What about Stormfly? Hey, girl, you don't mind if Toothless braids your hair, right?"

"Toothless give beautiful braids on me," Stormfly purred.

"Beautiful braids," Toothless agreed, and set to work.

_"Thank you,"_ Hiccup mouthed soundlessly at Astrid, who grinned.

It was also Astrid who thought of putting the younger children to good use. She showed up on their doorstop one morning with a little girl in tow. "Morning, Hiccup! This is Rapunzel. You wanna say hi to Hiccup, Zel?"

"Hi," the child said shyly. She had very long golden hair, and peeped up at Hiccup with an eager expression.

"Uh - hi."

"Does the...does the Night Fury really live here?"

"Yeah." Hiccup called over his shoulder. "Toothless!"

The dragon immediately scampered into the living room. "Hiccup calls to me. Hiccup wants me. I will help my Hiccup."

"Bud, this little girl's name is Rapunzel."

"Is a _little girl_, female young human." Toothless peered at her curiously.

Rapunzel stared back in awe. "Oooohhh...!"

"Little girl likes me," Toothless purred. He got down on his hands and knees so as to match her height, and nuzzled her. "I am very _cool_ dragon, yes?"

"You are very cool," Rapunzel agreed, touching one of his pointed ears.

"Tickles."

Astrid said, with a wink at Hiccup, "Rapunzel wanted to know if you would braid her hair this morning, Toothless." Hiccup's eyes lit up.

"Braid hair. Very very _very_ much hair," Toothless said appreciatively, stroking his palm across Rapunzel's golden locks.

"You'll really fix my hair, Mr. Night Fury?" Rapunzel said eagerly.

"Braid little girl's hair. She is happy, not like _mean Hiccup_," Toothless said, throwing a glare over his shoulder at his human, which made Hiccup laugh.

Hiccup decided that Astrid was a genius. Dragon-braids became a fad at the elementary school - every morning, little girls and even a few boys showed up at the dragon-fliers' houses, clamoring for the dragons to do their hair. Hookfang had no patience or knack for it, but the others, particularly Meatlug, were happy to oblige, and the fad grew in popularity until it had spread to the junior high school.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?), Toothless had his fill by then. He soon tired of the household's morning routine getting constantly interrupted by human children, and took to hiding whenever he heard the doorbell ring. It was also kind of funny, but also a bit exasperating, to see how often he got chased by children on the streets these days.

Finally, the day came when Toothless refused to braid his hair even to go flying, and then they were right back at square one. "Can't see can't see can't seeeee!" he wailed. "Bad braids, bad children, Hiccup I am upset, Hiccup comfort me, Hiccup make it better make it better _make it better_...!"

Hiccup gave his girlfriend an exasperated look as he tried to soothe his dragon and simultaneously pull Toothless's hair back into a simple ponytail. "This," he said to Astrid, "is _all your fault_," though he couldn't help smiling a little when all she did was laugh.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I've been _trying_ to work on Slyfoot's _He's Not Dangerous_ story, but I'm still frustrated by it and by my other projects, and it's been too long since I posted something again, so I once more wanted to draft something with better flow and inspiration. Layman had asked for "The Downed Dragon," but I'd started writing that in my notebook, and I needed to write something on the computer. So then I was thinking of "Flying With Mother" ideas and was about to write that, but then one of the ideas melded with inspiration from Medli45's adorable sketches of human-HTTYD2-Toothless on deviantART, and I ended up with this random story about braids instead. XD

Writing human-Toothless is _so fun_. I've actually got other human-Toothless stories in the works, but this is the first one that got finished and posted.


	3. HTTYD1: Dragon's Den

_**His Soul Reflects My Own**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter "Dragon's Den" (rough draft)**

A/N: OKAY, I CHEATED. X'D There's so little chance of anyone reading this fic knowing Igbo that I'm willing to use Google Translate's incredibly awful translations for Toothless's speech; and I know enough Japanese to be able to make fool of myself with the Zipplebacks' dialogue, rather than a complete and total fool of myself.

**But for all the other dragons, I'm just going to put their dialogue in italicized brackets instead of typing it in whatever language it should be. *sweatdrop* Just be aware that the humans can't understand them.**

o.o.o

For a long time, they simply glided on and on through the night, everything so perfect that they didn't need to say a word.

Then Hiccup gradually became aware that the mood had changed at some point, from peaceful to somber. Astrid's voice, low as it was, seemed to break the last lingering bit of his contentment. "So...what now?"

He wasn't sure how to respond, since he knew exactly what she meant and very much did not want to think about it.

She was Astrid, though. She wasn't going to just let it go. "Hiccup your final trial is _tomorrow_. What are you going to do? If you feel about _all_ dragons the same way you feel about your Night Fury, tomorrow is going to be a very, very big problem for you."

"Don't remind me," Hiccup muttered, subconsciously tightening his grip on her hand.

Both of the humans were caught off guard when Toothless suddenly sucked in a breath and dove into the mist.

"Aah!" Astrid swung wildly; Hiccup risked using his other hand to seize her and then haul her securely up into his right arm before putting his left around Toothless. Toothless seemed very distracted, which weakened the mental bond so much that Hiccup himself had wobbled in the air and, he suspected, nearly fallen out of range. It made him nervous enough to want to keep direct contact with the Night Fury's chip until he calmed down. "Toothless! What's wrong, why'd you-?"

Toothless hissed at him distractedly, as if telling him to shut up.

Hiccup exchanged a nervous glance with Astrid, then adjusted his hold on both the extra passenger and their ride. They all felt strangely heavy, as if, for the first time in the entire flight, Hiccup could _feel_ Toothless having to drag around the weight of two humans. "Toothless..."

The dragon's arm slid around him and clutched him close. "Nzuzu, ọkọdọ," he was muttering, "na na, kwa nso, ike ga-n'efu, m, n'ihi ya, nzuzu, gịnị mere na ihe mere ya mere ka m ka m ina dọpụ uche ya, Hiccup ndo ndo ihe m ga-eme ihe m ga-eme ihe m ga-eme...?"

Hiccup didn't dare move either of his arms, so he hesitantly nuzzled his cheek against the dragon's instead. "It's okay, bud," he said softly, "it's gonna be okay, just calm down and let's turn around-" He didn't know why the flying sequence was suddenly not responding to most of his commands. It was creepy, as if someone else was now controlling parts of the program.

"Ịbụ jụụ, Hiccup!" Toothless said, his tone almost despairing.

Astrid gasped. Hiccup saw where she was looking and felt a stab of fear as the dark shape of another dragon came plunging through the mist, so close that it fouled Toothless's flight for a second. Toothless's grip on his human tightened painfully, and Hiccup automatically mirrored the gesture with Astrid, as if he could somehow hide or protect her.

"Hiccup," Astrid whimpered.

It soon became clear that they were surrounded. More and more ghostly dark shapes became visible flying alongside them, perhaps hundreds, eerily quiet considering that there were so many of them. Hiccup felt a chill go through him when he saw that every single dragon was carrying something, food or weapons or equipment or other stolen supplies, and that the way they clutched their cargo was similar to the way Toothless was gripping him now.

"We're going to end up the same as the rest of the loot, aren't we," Astrid said softly.

"Toothless," Hiccup whispered.

"I'm sorry," Toothless whispered back, which was not at all encouraging. "Achọghị m ka m ihe ọ bụla ihe ọjọọ ime gị..." For the first time since this weirdness had started, Toothless looked him in the eyes, and Hiccup gasped as the bond suddenly surged strong again, even more than usual. "Me, I," Toothless said solemnly, then laid his free hand over Hiccup's heart. "You. Important." He pressed the hand against his own heart. "_Very_." He closed his eyes for a moment and touched his head to Hiccup's.

"It would be nice if that means what I hope it means," Hiccup murmured, "and not what I'm afraid it means." Depending on what the endgame was, being worthless could possibly be much more advantageous than being valuable. Hiccup resolved to triple his efforts on the stupid translator program if they managed to get out of this mess alive.

When Astrid's already painful grip on Hiccup tightened even more, he realized that they were starting to catch the attention of some of the other dragons. A fraternal Zippleback pair was frowning at them. "Ningen no tame no shiyō, Yorunotsubasa-san o motte imasen," the female remarked disapprovingly.

"Nọrọ nke azụmahịa m," Toothless snapped.

A Monstrous Nightmare on their other side grinned nastily. _["If She's busy eating you, then I'll have time to save my own skin. Carry on, Nightwing."]_

"Ịbụ jụụ n'ihu m gbaa gị!"

The air was rapidly growing colder and more difficult to breathe. Both the humans were shivering. Toothless said, "Hiccup, strong," in a warning sort of way, and then everything went black.

Hiccup cried out, except he had no mouth to scream with, no ears to hear the scream with. He was blind. He had no sense of having a body, could no longer feel Astrid in his grasp or Toothless holding him, it was as if he had been reduced to simply a mind and soul, stranded completely alone in the middle of an endless void. Just before he could really and truly panic, physicality abruptly returned, and he had to close his eyes against the light, even dim as it was.

He had _absolutely no clue_ where they were now. Far, far below was an array of lights that could have been anything from office building windows to stars. They were still surrounded by the airborne flock, all headed in the same direction, toward a structure Hiccup would have described as a volcano if it had been the right colors and if its surface hadn't been teeming with a blanket of movement that Hiccup didn't even want to know the source of. The air was now stiflingly hot, and Toothless was making a strange, terrified humming sound...if the being was even still Toothless, because Hiccup honestly wasn't sure anymore.

The Night Fury - _all_ the dragons, actually - no longer looked even remotely human. Toothless didn't have wings anymore, either; he was a creature covered all over with silky black fur, long enough to cover any features the face might have had, with four elongated limbs that could have been arms or legs or tails or all three; two of them joined the one still wrapped around Hiccup to hold onto him even more securely. The other dragons looked completely different - the ones that seemed most like Nadders now resembled birds, and were the only ones who still had wings; the Zipplebacks were like entwined snakes, the Nightmares seemed like a mass of fangs and claws and not much else.

Hiccup now felt completely weightless. The entire flock seemed to be gliding along like feathers, nothing holding them aloft except for...what, their chips? Magic? Did they even still have chips anymore? Nothing was making sense.

Hiccup warily felt through the fur around what he thought might be the Toothless-thing's neck, and was surprised and relieved to find that the chip was still there. Unfortunately, the flying sequence now seemed to be running entirely on autopilot; every single input Hiccup tried was rejected. It was possible that the mental bond he could still sense between him and his dragon was the only thing preventing the trio from plunging down into the abyss below; Hiccup's own chip had gone completely offline. All he could do was watch helplessly as the three of them were drawn into the heart of the alien volcano.

The inside of the volcano looked a little like the inside of a computer. All the light was red, and made it difficult to see; tiny dots of different colors were blinking everywhere, intricate paths of circuitry lined the walls. Dragons were depositing their loot into a series of chutes that circled what looked like an enormous pool of bubbling liquid metal.

To Hiccup's immense relief, Toothless broke away from the current of fliers and dodged behind a row of what looked like large opaque tanks or pods. They came to a clumsy landing, Hiccup stumbling to his knees as he let go of Astrid. Toothless immediately wrapped his remaining limb around Hiccup and hugged him tightly, burying his head in the boy's shoulder. "Ụjọ na-atụ m, Ụjọ na-atụ m, Ụjọ na-atụ m, Ụjọ na-atụ m, Ụjọ na-atụ m..." He was shaking.

"Ssshh, Toothless, it's okay," Hiccup whispered, even though he was shaking, too. Anything that could terrify a Night Fury like this was not something Hiccup wanted to be anywhere close to. He stroked the dragon's fur and tried to pull away, but Toothless was too strong; Hiccup could barely move.

"We've got to get out of here," Astrid said urgently, peering out at the swarm of dragons and the molten pool.

"His chip's locked me out or something," Hiccup said in frustration, failing once again to get Toothless's chip to respond to anything he tried to do to it. "I can't-"

"What are they even _doing_ with all that stuff, anyway?! Are they storing it or something?"

"How should I know?" Hiccup glanced out between the tanks where Astrid was looking. A small, rather pathetic-looking Gronckle caught his eye because of its clumsy flight. It buzzed up to a chute and dropped into it something so small that Hiccup couldn't even tell what it was, a paltry offering compared to the limbfuls of loot that the other dragons had been contributing.

Something changed in the air. Hiccup and Astrid couldn't tell what it was, but the dragons reacted instantly. Toothless went completely still and silent; the other dragons began hastily retreating - _hiding_ wherever they could. Whatever it was about this place that was frightening Toothless so badly was terrifying _all_ of them. The Gronckle who seemed to have started the fuss looked alarmed, and began to retreat as well.

A hand reached out of the molten pool. A _gigantic_ hand, human-shaped but big enough to crush a house. The enormous fingers closed around the Gronckle and drew it down into the pool. There was a great sizzling sound and a muffled shriek of agony.

"...What...was...that?" Astrid choked out.

Hiccup was distracted from responding. Kneeling there with his fingertips frozen on the Night Fury's chip, he was suddenly presented with a glaring ERROR message. For one second, he stared at it stupidly. Then he gasped and seized the opportunity to reboot the chip, praying that it would obey him this time.

It did. Toothless collapsed. Now Hiccup was the one clutching the mostly-unconscious dragon, praying for the chip to reboot quickly, quickly, _quickly_-

A giant human head was rising out of the molten pool. A neck, shoulders, wings, breasts, ribs - a vast woman, completely naked, which might have had some appeal to a typical human male if her sheer size hadn't made her grotesque, if the parts of her that were made of flesh didn't give off an unbearable stench and look like they were rotting away, if the other half of her body wasn't constructed of mechanical limbs and synthetic organs, sparking wires, whirring machinery, battered circuitry. Hiccup wouldn't have believed what he was seeing if his eyes hadn't been fixed on it in horror.

"_What_ - _is_ - _that_?!" Astrid wailed again, her fists clenching as if she wished she was holding a weapon.

Toothless had been crouched in his human's arms, so petrified that it took Hiccup a minute to realize he had regained consciousness. "T-Toothless, we've got to get out of here, we've got to get-"

The dragon's chip was _finally_ responding to him. Hiccup seized Astrid with one hand and activated the flying sequence with the other, panicked because he knew it wouldn't work with Toothless in this bizarre wingless form, but then a message - from Toothless? - popped up asking Hiccup in all caps if he would like to run the sequence in "¦§ʖº Mode," and Hiccup had no clue what that was but he answered _Yes Yes Yes!_ anyway, and the rotting cyborg giant was leaning her huge hideous head toward them with her nightmarish eyes fixed on them and her _mouth opening_ and a choking stench enveloping them so that Hiccup went light-headed and nearly passed out, and Toothless had those strange limbs wrapped around him again somehow dragging at him, they were running, the giant was going to _eat them_, jumping off the edge, the bond so poisoned with terror from both ends that they could barely stay airborne, Hiccup mentally screaming at his dragon _"I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU WE _MUST GET HOME_"_ in a desperate attempt to steady their flight, fingertips pressed so hard against the chip that it hurt, Astrid clinging to him with a death grip, the gruesome crashing grinding sound of enormous teeth snapping together-

Hiccup heard agonized screams, and wondered wildly for a second if it was him or Astrid making that terrible noise, but no - they were still in the air, still flying, surrounded by the entire flock of terrified dragons, he risked a single look over his shoulder and it was bits of a Zippleback sticking out of that horrifying titanic mouth instead, the enormous monster was sinking back into its pool and they were _free_.

Hiccup felt sick.

The flock seemed agitated now, the dragons' flights erratic and panicked, all of them just trying to get _away_. _'They hate this,'_ Hiccup thought in the back of his mind. _'They don't _want_ to raid us but they're forced to, they're prisoners, they-'_

The Toothless-thing croaked in such a hoarse voice that Hiccup only belatedly realized it was speaking. "Hiccup...strong."

Hiccup gasped. "Astrid, we're about to-"

Oblivion.

Hiccup tried hard not to panic this time. _'My body's still here, somewhere, this won't last long, this time we're going _home_, I, I, don't panic Hiccup, this is, I'm still me, don't panic, don't panic, it'll be okay it'll be okay it'll be o-'_

Reality. Hiccup nearly sobbed in relief as he felt his body again, clutched by a Toothless who once again looked like a winged human, with Astrid safely in his other-

They fell.

"Hiccup!" Toothless cried, panicked. "Chip! Chip! Chip!"

"I-I know, I got it!"

"Hiccup!" Astrid screamed.

"Hold on!" Hiccup frantically tried to figure out how to exit the weird Toothless As An Alien Mode and restart the flying sequence in its regular mode. He managed to do it before they hit the ground, and for the next few seconds, all three of them glided in silence, their relief and lingering fear too great for words.

Then Toothless gave a sob and begged, "Hiccup, _please_."

Hiccup licked his dry lips. "You want to land...?"

"I need a break," Astrid said flatly.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. Okay," Hiccup agreed shakily.

They came to rest on a wide ledge of rock on the side of a cliff. Only a corner of it was shadowed, but as soon as their feet hit solid ground, Toothless wrapped two arms and two wings and a tail around his human and dragged him into the safety of that extra darkness, sinking into a crouch and rocking back and forth with his face buried in Hiccup's chest. "Akasi m obi, akasi m obi, akasi m obi..."

"Toothless-" Hiccup, held at an uncomfortable angle where he couldn't support himself at all without wrapping his arms around Toothless's neck, finally sighed and did so. He felt ridiculous and undignified, being cradled by the distressed dragon like a baby. He glanced at Astrid, his face feeling hot. "Um, he's a dragon, they kind of...they're, um, different, he doesn't think it's weird to, he's got no sense of personal space, uh-"

"It's fine, Hiccup." Astrid rolled her eyes and sat down beside them. Toothless did nothing to acknowledge her proximity. "He's really frightened, isn't he," Astrid murmured, hesitantly touching the dragon's shoulder.

"I've never seen him like this," Hiccup said, starting to stroke Toothless's hair in an effort to calm him. "That...that _thing_ back there...it really freaked them out, _all_ of them."

"Was that their world?" Astrid said in a hushed voice. "Is that where they all _come from_?"

Hiccup stared at her. "I...I think you're right. Wow- _Wow_..."

The theories had never been proved. No space probe had ever found a planet in this universe from which the dragons could have possibly traveled; no experiments had ever come close to crossing to an entirely different universe. It was very possible that Hiccup and Astrid had somehow, miraculously in one piece, just visited the dragons' homeworld and then returned.

"Was that what you _really_ look like?" Hiccup wondered, gently trying to brush Toothless's hair out of his face. "That...that furry thing? This..." He studied the Night Fury's mostly human body, the black wings and damaged tail. "Is this some sort of construct, or...?" It felt real enough. Toothless's grip on him had relaxed only marginally, but at least he wasn't shaking anymore, and he'd gone quiet and stopped his childlike rocking. His head was still pressed against Hiccup's chest, though. "Are you listening to my heartbeat?"

"Hiccup," Toothless murmured. "_My_ Hiccup. _My_ human. Important. Good. No hurt, _no_."

"You're important to me, too, bud," Hiccup said softly. "Toothless is _my_ dragon."

Toothless made a pleased sound.

Astrid was watching them. "I still can't really believe what I'm seeing," she said wryly. "Hiccup, that is a _Night Fury_. The deadliest dragon known to mankind, and he's hugging you like a scared little kid hugging a teddy bear."

Hiccup grinned. "I know." He pushed and squirmed until Toothless finally let go of him and he was able to sit up properly. The dragon waited until he was decently still, then leaned heavily on him. "Astrid, they're not what we think they are. They're _not_ monsters, I don't think any of them are. I ran into some Terrible Terrors the other day, and they..." He smiled helplessly. "Nothing bad happened. They were, um...kind of cute."

"Terrible Terrors. 'Cute'?" Astrid repeated dubiously.

"I mean, they _play_, just like human kids. They have...dragons have emotions, you know. They're people. They're not just mindless destruction machines, you _saw_. There's something very, very, very wrong here, and it's that _Thing_, that monster back in their world that's controlling them, they-" Hiccup gasped. "The chips!" He turned his head to meet Toothless's eyes, and found the dragon gazing at him seriously. "Toothless?" He touched the spot behind the Fury's left ear. "Your chip, Toothless. Did you _want_ this? Did you ask for this?"

"Chip," Toothless said softly. "Chip _bad_. Before. Hiccup good." He closed his eyes and reached to press Hiccup's palm harder against the chip. "Yours," he murmured.

Hiccup frowned in confusion and glanced at Astrid, who shrugged helplessly, then back at the dragon. "It was a bad chip?"

"Hurt," Toothless hissed, his expression dark. "Hurt, hurt, hurt. _Bad_. Dark." With his free hand, he made a gesture toward his own chest (his heart?). "Dark _here_. Angry, angry." He waved his hand. "Dark, very. All. All. Again, again, again." He smiled. "Hiccup. Good. All. Now." He finally let go and leaned to rest his head on Hiccup's shoulder. "Yours," he murmured.

Hiccup was afraid to respond, amazed at what he thought Toothless was saying, wondering if he'd misunderstood.

"That dragon loves you," Astrid said softly. Wonderingly. "He really loves you."

Toothless, still resting on Hiccup, studied her. "Loves?" he repeated, testing out the new word.

Astrid smiled and pressed her hands against her own heart. "Love," she said, trying to convey the meaning with her tone. "Love."

Toothless raised his head. He smiled widely. He touched his own heart, then Hiccup's. "Me, I, _love_ to Hiccup."

"Yes," Astrid laughed, and Toothless purred.

"Thanks, Astrid," Hiccup said dryly. "You do realize he's got nowhere _near_ the vocabulary for me to explain the fine points to him?"

Astrid chuckled. "He understands enough. It's fine." She got to her feet and held out her hand to help up Hiccup as well. "Come on, let's go home."

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: I decided that Hiccup has a computer chip in this universe, too, but he got his implanted in his forearm when he was fourteen (he'd bugged his dad about it until Stoick finally let him get it as a birthday present or something X'D). I might have to adjust the "This Is Berk"/"New Tail" chapters, I'm not sure yet.

ADVENTURES WITH GOOGLE TRANSLATE, LOL. XD I don't know _where_ the heck it got "Hiccup got married" from, or how it turned "Shut up, Hiccup!" (though I put it in as "be quiet" for accuracy's sake) into "Be cool, Hiccup!" and it didn't even RECOGNIZE the Japanese - thought it was Norwegian and couldn't translate it at all. XD XD XD Maybe because it'd been romanized or something, I dunno.

I have "The Downed Dragon" material hand-written, but it needs to be typed; almost done with "Valka's Dragon Sanctuary," which I'll probably post together with "Flying With Mother" once I get that written. The next story I intended to post in this universe was another 'between the two movies' one-shot that Medli gave me an idea for, but then this "Dragon's Den" scene started playing through my head and I ended up drafting it first. ^^;


	4. HTTYD1: The Downed Dragon

_**His Soul Reflects My Own**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter "The Downed Dragon" (rough draft)**

xXxXxXx

Honestly, what Hiccup most strongly felt as he stared at his catch, the most impressive achievement he'd ever accomplished in his life, was: aghast. For some reason, he hadn't expected the Night Fury to _bleed_ this much. _'Well,'_ he thought bitterly at himself, _'what did you _expect_ would happen after it's been shot out of the sky, fallen through barbed wire, and knocked itself out?'_

He really, really hated that they looked human. He couldn't help feeling _sorry_ for it, and had to keep telling himself over and over again as he made his cautious approach that the thing wasn't human, it was a monster that destroyed stuff and stole precious supplies and hurt and killed people. "Okay...oh, man, I can't believe...this is really..."

After a moment's hesitation, he knelt down beside the creature. The disruptor had rendered it completely immobile; its limbs lay sprawled awkwardly on the ground as if it was a discarded doll. Hiccup took in the creature's disturbingly young face (it looked to be no older than a teenager like himself...), its pointed ears, its dark skin with smatterings of black scales, and the sleek coverings that served as both armor and some kind of ornamentation. It...wasn't ugly. Maybe it would have been easier to see the dragon as a monster if it looked ugly? But it didn't, so...yeah.

"Okay...okay, I can do this." Hiccup refocused on his task - and froze. Impossibly, the dragon had awakened, fixing green eyes on Hiccup. The pupils were slitted narrow in an unsettling expression like a frightened cat's. _'Like an _angry_ cat,'_ Hiccup corrected himself. The thing was a freaking Night Fury, of course it wasn't afraid of anything. ...Though, waking up to find oneself immobilized at an enemy's mercy might be enough to frighten _anyone_...maybe even a Night Fury...

_'GET IT TOGETHER, Hiccup,'_ Hiccup ordered himself. He tore his gaze away from the dragon's, took a deep breath, and reached for the chip behind its left ear. He couldn't help cringing at the thought of those strong limbs springing to life, even though he knew the dragon shouldn't be able to move with its chip disrupted. He wished he'd brought something to tie it with, just for his peace of mind. _'_Focus_, Hiccup.'_ He nudged the chip into receiving mode.

It was bad enough that the dragon's eyes were fixed on him even though it should have still been unconscious, but now it was breathing heavily as if it was panicking.

"Stop it...stop it stop it stop it..." Hiccup was poised with the virus ready to load. All he had to do was flick a fingertip, and the dragon would be his. He'd present it to the city, to his father, able to claim that Hiccup Stoickson was the one to single-handedly capture a Night Fury and provide the community with desperately needed fresh data, something they could use to advance their weaponry and defenses, and perhaps adjust their tactics; this could very well be the key to winning the entire war.

Yet Hiccup couldn't stop himself from peeking at the dragon's face again.

It was terrified. He could no longer pretend he couldn't see that. "Well, of course you'd cower before the mighty son of Stoick the Vast. All dragons will learn to fear me!" Hiccup honestly wasn't sure whether he'd meant it as a joke or not, but either way, it sounded ridiculous and pathetic.

He jumped when the dragon spoke quietly. "Gịnị mere na ọ ga-akwụsị dị ka nke a...?"

Hiccup felt chills running down his back - not of fear, but of some emotion he could not name. It felt wrong, wrong, _wrong_ to destroy a creature who was looking him in the eyes and expressing its sorrow.

Then it wasn't looking at him anymore, because it had closed its eyes and gone limp.

Hiccup stared, trembling. _'What am I...what am I _doing_?'_ He knew now that he couldn't bring himself to hurt this stupid dragon, no matter how much he needed to. It _felt_ too human; it was far too easy to see himself lying there, helpless and scared, instead. "I'm such an _idiot_," Hiccup groaned. He briefly considered just walking away, but he couldn't leave a Night Fury lying around, not now that he'd resolved to spare it. He sighed and filed the unused virus away, then leaned down to focus on uninstalling the disruptor and repairing the damaged mobility sequences.

After a while, he wondered vaguely in the back of his mind why the dragon remained utterly still even after it had regained partial mobility functions, but he was concentrating too hard on his work to pay much attention to idle speculations. 60% complete...left thumb done, now for the four fingers...jaw, wings, tai-

The instant mobility hit 100%, the Night Fury sprang to life, and by the time Hiccup, who hadn't even had time to swear, finally realized what was happening, he was pinned to the ground on his back with a deadly dragon kneeling over him, its hands gripping his head and swiftly heating up as it prepared to fire.

_'STUPID!'_ Hiccup silently screamed at himself. _'Stupid stupid stupid flaming _idiot_...!'_ He'd spared a valuable Night Fury, wasted all his hard work, showed mercy to a monster, and now he was going to die for it like the pathetic idiot failure he was.

His hands were braced against the dragon's shoulders, though he might as well have been exerting no force, for all the notice the dragon took of his resistance. Hiccup had time to beg, "Please," though his mouth was so dry that the word was barely audible. Time seemed to freeze.

_'Why am I not dead yet?'_ Hiccup wondered distractedly.

The Night Fury leaned so close their noses nearly touched, its eyes pinning its victim with a searing intensity. Hiccup heard himself whimper in fear. His hands had moved to the dragon's wrists, trying vainly to pry them away, and now he was wondering if the dragon was going to bite him instead - his face, his _throat_, was it going to rip into him like a wild animal...?! _'I'd rather have the fire,'_ he thought, even as the dragon's hands started cooling. With a Night Fury, it would be more like a quick explosion than being agonizingly burned. _'Just, please, don't let it hurt, I _know_ you can kill me instantly, so please don't-'_

The dragon dropped him. It reared its arm back as if to punch him; Hiccup immediately curled up as much as he could and flung his arms protectively over his face.

"ỊNA-EMEGHARỊ M!" the dragon screamed in his ear.

Trembling, Hiccup finally uncurled and acknowledged in utter stupefaction that the Night Fury was gone. He could hear it retreating through the mist in a shrieking, staggering half-flight in the direction of the storefield. There was one last animalistic screech, then silence.

"Son of a..." Hiccup was shaking so hard that it was difficult to climb to his feet; then when he tried to walk, he promptly fell back down. "I should be dead right now...I should be _dead_, why am I, HOW am I not dead...?!"

xXxXxXx

Author's Notes: Urgh...noticed a mistake that hopefully nobody else will, but hopefully I'll figure out a way to fix it in the final draft, if/when I ever get around to finishing and editing this story. :/

I know I've said this a lot on dA, but I don't know if I've ever mentioned it in my fanfiction - it's really important to me that human-Toothless has dark skin. Every single picture I've seen of human-Toothless depicts him with pale skin (with the exception of a few yaoi pictures *facepalm*, as well as the fantastic pictures that my friend Medli has drawn for me~ X3 3), but that doesn't make sense to me at all. o.O Especially since I've gotten tired of the whole whitewashing thing, which I'll try really hard not to rant about.

Most of my drafting these days is on a KH/HTTYD crossover that I'm working on for AkuSaiRokuShi Day, but it's a longer fic than I expected and I'm running out of time, so I don't know if I'll be able to finish. :/ If I do finish in time, it'll be the first not-100%-HTTYD fanfic I've posted in over two months; but if I don't finish in time, it's going to get buried along with all my other partial drafts and probably take years to finish. -.- I also started a drawing for AkuSai Day, and another crossover fanfic for 8.13.14, but that one's also a long one that I'm worried about not finishing in time. :(

As for _His Soul Reflects My Own_, I'd finished all the "Valka's Dragon Sanctuary" stuff in my notebook that'd I'd wanted to write at the time, but then I decided to go back and write the whole chapter properly, not just the parts I was most interested in. So I'm currently filling in the blanks on that. There's also another between-the-two-movies one-shot inspired by Medli that I've been wanting to draft when I get a chance. I NEED to get to the exposition/worldbuilding that'll be in "Dragon Training" and "See You Tomorrow" as soon as I can stop procrastinating. Been thinking about "Toothless Found" a lot, but should probably write a lot more of the previous material before I get to it. Also been thinking a lot about "Two New Alphas." "The Cove" has also been niggling at me, though I think it might squick some people out. *sweatdrop* Also been playing with "The Kill Ring" and "Ready The Ships" a bit. I'm looking forward to writing Hookfang in this 'verse. X3 I love Hookfang~ he's my second-favorite HTTYD dragon after Toothless. :3


	5. Post-canon: Trust, chapter 1

_**His Soul Reflects My Own**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic series by Raberba girl**

**Trust (rough draft)**

Summary: Toothless discovers exactly why Stoick isn't around anymore. Post-HTTYD2.

A/N: About 1,400 words of chapter 2 still need to be typed, and although I am currently drafting chapter 6, there are still two more major plot points left to go before the story is complete. Judging from my poor track record with previous incomplete WIPs, I feel like I should warn you beforehand that, although I've written roughly 13,500 words of this fic so far, there's still some more left to go.

Despite some comic relief and a decently happy ending, this is overall an angsty fic. :/

The first few chapters are in Toothless's POV.

**Chapter 1**

Hiccup has nightmares almost every night now, and I hate it because He _doesn't want me_ when He wakes up, and it hurts and I don't know what to do. "Hiccup!"

"No- _No_...!"

I want to tell Him it's me, it's His Toothless, but this time I don't because the other times it made Him scared and angry instead of relieved.

"Don't-!"

Why does He think I will hurt Him? I would never hurt Him, never ever ever ever. But He hits me, so I let Him go and finally He opens His eyes.

"Nightmare is fake, a _lie_," I tell Him. "It's only in Your head, not real. In this real Berk, You are safe."

He is staring at me, but He doesn't feel better. "Toothless...?"

"It's me. I'm here."

"Hey...hey..."

I touch Him to comfort Him because He is awake now, but He cringes away and my heart hurts.

"I...I'm okay, bud, I just...do you think you could just leave me alone for a while...?"

I don't want to leave Him alone. "You are awake now. Nightmare is gone, everything is okay."

I don't know why tears start coming in His eyes. I don't like it. "Please, Toothless...please, I'm begging you, just...just for a little while, just let me...I need to be alone, _please_..."

I have to do it if He's begging. My heart still hurts when I go to Dad's room which is Mom's room now. Cloudjumper resting in his bed on the floor sits up and looks at me. I climb onto Mom's bed and rest my head on her so she will wake up and comfort me.

"Oh...Toothless...?" Her fingers stroke through my hair. I close my eyes. "What's wrong-?" Suddenly she is tense and tries to sit up, and I move away from her so that she can. "Is it Hiccup again?"

"Why doesn't He want me? He needs me, so why doesn't He want me?"

She hugs me but she is worried about her child that she loves, so she can't stay to comfort me; she goes to comfort Hiccup instead. I know He will let her even though He doesn't let me. That's good, but my heart still hurts so I go to curl up with Cloudjumper instead. He curves an arm and a wing around me and lays his head down by mine and purrs until I feel better. Dragons know how to comfort best; I wish humans did, too.

_"I thought I know humans very well by now,"_ I tell him, _"but sometimes I think I don't understand them at all."_

_"We keep learning more and more about each other, every day,"_ he says.

_"Yes. But I don't want to hurt like this."_

_"You are still very young, aren't You..."_

I am his alpha, but he's the one comforting and taking care of me. _"Yes, what you say is true. I will get better - but later, not now."_

_"Yes."_ He nuzzles me and falls back asleep, but I stay awake for a long time, waiting until the one I love most will finally let me come back to Him.

o.o.o.o.o

I help Mom make breakfast because Hiccup is sleeping late, and together we teach Cloudjumper how to make waffles. Cloudjumper thinks they are a silly food, and they taste silly but they are still fun to make, and Cloudjumper eats the fruit Mom put on top. Then she makes him a fish omelet but she ruins it on accident, so I make another one for them both and he eats his share and is happier than when he tried to eat the waffles.

"Why does Alpha cook human food better than You?" he asks Mom. He is confused.

"I suspect Toothless had a very good teacher," Mom says, patting me.

I am proud of myself. "Hiccup taught me how to cook human food," I tell them. I pour syrup and syrup and syrup on my waffles until Mom takes the syrup bottle away from me. "But it's more fun to make than it is to eat. Dragon food is boring but is more good to eat." I lay a beautiful perfect raw fish on top of my beautiful perfect waffles and fold them around it and lift it up and take a bite and close my eyes as fish juice and syrup run down my chin. Soooooo good. Mom is laughing, I don't know why.

Hiccup doesn't like good fish though because He's human, so I make Him an omelet too when He finally comes to eat. I'm glad that He came to eat this time and I didn't have to make Him eat. But He doesn't eat very much of it for a while and He chews so slooooow, and I'm not happy and I decide maybe I cooked it wrong so I should make a better one, but then when I turn around suddenly it's all gone. Good. Hiccup is already weak from not enough sleep; He must get extra strength from food to make up for it.

"No, really, it was great, no need to make another one! Please, please don't."

"Okay. Omelet is finished; now it's time for waffles."

"Ummm no, wait, it's fine, Toothless, I'm really, really full...!"

Finally we fly out to talk to Gobber and pick up a bunch of human things and take them around the city. Hiccup is walking slow today, and His smile is tired; maybe He didn't eat enough after all. He sighs when He sits down on a ledge of one of the towers Squirt knocked down, and He leans back against the broken bricks. He turns the pages on His clipboard, and Astrid has a clipboard too but she's staring at Him instead of looking at it.

"Gobber says the shipment finally came in, so we can probably resume work here this afternoon, but I was thinking we might as well wait 'til the community center is finished first, since most of the teams are already working on it..." He looks up. "Astrid?"

"...Hiccup, you look awful."

"..."

"When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?"

"I don't sleep very well these days," He mumbles.

Astrid looks at me.

"Many nightmares," I tell her. "Hiccup hurts even when He is awake."

"Toothless," Hiccup says. His face is turned to me but His eyes are not looking at mine. "You think you could go grab me a cup of coffee? I need...I really need some coffee." He smiles a smile that looks a little dead. "That would help me out a lot, bud. Please?"

I think maybe what He's saying is not true, I don't know, but He's asking for it so I want to give it to Him. "Yes! I will go find coffee and bring it to You."

"A _cup_ filled with coffee, not a whole coffeepot or a coffee maker or a package of coffee beans or whatever. A _cup_."

"Yes! Yes, I know; _duh_."

Astrid pats Stormfly and says to her, "You wanna go with him, girl? Make sure he stays out of trouble."

"Astrid wants me to go away," Stormfly says to herself.

"Ah - I mean, I just want you to keep Toothless company, okay? I'd like a little bit of alone time with my fiancé, so, heh, walk slow, okay?"

Astrid smiles at us, but she is feeling anxious instead of happy, so I don't know why she's smiling. Me and Stormfly look at each other, then we go away because our humans don't want us close, and we hold hands to comfort each other.

_"Companion is worried about her soon-to-be-mate,"_ Stormfly says.

_"I am worried about Half Of Me, too. Something is wrong, but He won't tell me what it is."_

Stormfly stares at me. _"Your other half hides something from You?"_

Tears sting in my eyes, and I am a little angry on top of the sadness. _"Humans don't know anything. They don't know how to be good halves. One Who Hiccups was a good half by accident because He is a so very good best person, but now-"_ I am not angry at all anymore; all that's left is pain. Stormfly lets go of my hand and puts her arm around my shoulders instead, and spreads her wing to shield me. _"Now I think maybe He doesn't want me to be His other half anymore, and I'm scared."_

Stormfly stares at me. _"Two halves can't stop being halves."_

_"This is true for dragons. But for humans?! Who ever had a human half before, except me and One Who Leaps Over Clouds?! Humans do so so so so much we thought was impossible, maybe they can stop being halves with us, too...!"_

Stormfly holds me and comforts me until I stop crying. _"Your other half loves You,"_ she whispers. _"He defied a monster and a Dream Master to rescue You. He will never cut You away from him, he will never abandon You."_

_"Yes...yes..."_ I hope she is right. I can't even think about if she is wrong.

We find coffee and a cup, and we pour the coffee into the cup. I _know_ how to get 'a cup of coffee,' hmph. Stormfly takes another cup to bring to her Astrid, and then we go back to our humans, walking slow.

We can hear their voices talking to each other down the hall.

"...but, just, forget me, okay? I'll be fine, I'll get over it. Eventually. It's _him_ I...I just..."

"Hiccup..."

"You've seen how he gets whenever I'm threatened. How do you think he'd feel if he knew?"

"You really think you'll be able to hide it forever? You think he can't already tell that something's wrong?"

"I just need...more time, I-"

"...Hiccup? What is it?"

"I just realized- The recordings- The _recordings_, if he sees them before they expire-!"

Hiccup and Astrid finally see us standing here waiting for them to notice us.

"Toothless?!" Hiccup looks panicked. Is He scared of me?! What?! Why?!

"We brought coffee for Astrid and for Hiccup." Stormfly offers the cup she is holding.

"Thanks, sweetie," Astrid says, and she smiles and takes the cup, but she is nervous and keeps looking at Hiccup.

Hiccup is staring at me. He swallows. "Hey...bud...you heard us talking, huh?"

"Talking about recordings. Mine? You want to look at them?" I tilt my head so He can get to the chip behind my ear.

"No! No, um- Hey, you brought my coffee!" He takes the cup I'm holding. "Wow, thanks, I really-" He stares at the cup, then lifts it up to His eyes and stares some more. "It...looks delicious."

"And ice-cold," Astrid mutters. Finally she is smiling for real.

"Yeah, um, thanks." Hiccup takes a tiny taste even though He looks like He really doesn't want to. His face gets all twisted. "Ulp-! Mmmm, that's, um, really good...!"

"Are you going to throw up?" I ask, because He looks like He's going to throw up. I think I did something wrong, but Astrid is laughing so I think it's okay.

"Uh...uhhh, just, just give me a minute...ugh..."

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: I'd been wondering whether or not to try a first-person fic in this universe, and this story finally seemed like one that kind of needed to be told from Toothless's perspective.

**For those of you who haven't read my other HTTYD fanfiction, when I write these dragon characters, they capitalize the pronouns of both the person they really love most and their queen or alpha. Also, pretty much all the relationships in this fic are platonic except for Hiccup/Astrid. The dragons in this story are much more comfortable with physical contact and verbal affection than humans are, and are never sexually attracted to anyone outside their specific breed. (Stormfly actually does have a Nadder mate by now. XD I just haven't had a chance to write him yet, and he's barely mentioned in this story.)**

**For more about Squirt, see the "A Small Addition To Berk's Flock" chapter of **_**The Dragon Queen of Berk**_**. XD Though I think the length of time between the Final Battle of HTTYD2 and the time Hiccup finds Squirt in my headcanon is different in that fic than it is in this one. Squirt has a larger role later in this story.**

Since this chapter is from a dragon's POV, of course he can understand the language that dragons speak to each other (it's the same one I use Google Translate for when writing from the humans' POV. X'D Even though I use Igbo, Japanese, etc. for stylistic purposes, it is not literally those languages. It's a common dragon language, with slightly different dialects for each breed, that is not understood by humans).

So...what happened was, a certain scene was writing itself in my head about a week ago, so I drafted it in my notebook as I was eating dinner or something. Then I got on the computer and wrote the stuff that came beforehand, which is this first chapter here. (The hand-written stuff is the beginning of the next chapter.) This fic was originally intended to be a one-shot, but it got so long that I had to break it in half. Then, as it kept getting longer and some appropriate scene breaks _did_ occur (which doesn't always happen XD), and since it's been two weeks since I last posted anything and I don't like having 13,500 words of the same story sitting around unposted, I decided to break it up into even smaller segments and start posting it as a short multi-chapter instead. Although the fic is not yet complete, I've been making good progress on it throughout the week (spending long chunks of time just drafting), and the scenes are pretty clear in my head, so I'm hoping I'll be able to see this through to the end in a reasonable amount of time. I'm currently at least halfway through chapter 6 and will try to get more writing done before the end of this weekend.


	6. HTTYD2: Valka's Dragon Sanctuary

_**His Soul Reflects My Own**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter "Valka's Dragon Sanctuary" (rough draft)**

A/N: Spoilers for HTTYD2.

**I'm so sorry, this isn't the next chapter of **_**Trust**_**!**

**I've had "Valka's Dragon Sanctuary" written for a while, but I finally typed it just now because I realized that some stuff in **_**Trust**_** chapter 2 references stuff in this chapter, so I should probably post this one first.** If all goes well, hopefully I can get _Trust_ chapter 2 posted by Friday.

o.o.o

"W-Wait just a minute!"

Feeling like he was going a little crazy from the rush of astonishment and lostness and excitement and pain and grief and joy and frustration, Hiccup rushed frantically after the figure in the distance, eyes fixed on her, registering nothing else around him even as he clambered over rocks and debris, and ducked around ruined hulks of twisted metal, and skidded on sandy dust, and splashed through puddles of scummy liquid. He was vaguely aware of Toothless trailing behind him, hoisting him over things he couldn't climb by himself or tugging him out of the way of sharp protrusions or hidden hollows he was too distracted to avoid, but his focus was so fixed on the retreating warrior before him that he barely noticed.

"You're my _mother_?! What the- How are you not dead?! They told me you were dead, _everyone thinks you're dead_! Where have you been all this time?! Have you been trapped in this world, can you not get back?! I can show you how; Toothless, the dra...gons..."

Emerging from the torn hull of a cruiser that looked like it had crashed a hundred years ago, Hiccup found himself in a vast dreamscape. Not a horrific nightmare one like the Red Death's so long ago, but the sort of dreamscape the dragons claimed their world had once been, full of light and color and health and _joy_. "Wow..."

Beside him, Toothless yelped indignantly when he found himself in his true form again. The dragon quickly changed to his mythic form, the winged, black-scaled animal Hiccup had seen a few times before. Toothless seemed surprised - apparently he'd been aiming for the humanoid Hiccup was most used to instead - but did not seem displeased with the alternate body. He barked at Hiccup and then, wriggling happily, pranced around him and made interested noises out at the rest of the dreamscape.

Hiccup wandered forward, speechless with awe, looking at the creatures of all shapes and sizes cavorting throughout the wonderland, not a single one of them seeming alarmed by his presence. A litter of winged kittens pounced on each other and tumbled through a grassy nest; three hulking furry figures like alien bears argued amiably in a foreign language over something that resembled a chessboard; a long caterpillar-like creature shining with rainbow colors lazily spun bubbles into various shapes; a unicorn seemed to be deep in conversation with a huge salmon floating in the air; far off in the distance, wings flashed in the sunlight from a flock of creatures cavorting around a waterfall.

Hiccup frowned at his right arm. It stayed down at his side or did whatever else he told it to do as long as he was consciously thinking about it, but whenever he wasn't specifically concentrating on it, his arm kept drifting upwards. The spot where his chip was implanted felt odd, as if it had turned his whole arm into a helium balloon. "What the heck...?"

Just when Hiccup started to look around for the Dream Master, Toothless popped back into his Berk body and growled, flinging his arms protectively around Hiccup's shoulders.

Following the dragon's line of sight, Hiccup was startled to see his mother - the woman who claimed to be his mother, at any rate - perched up on a crystalline wall, watching him. Her dragon companion crouched on the ledge beside her, returning Toothless's stare, two of his wings curled protectively around his partner as if he thought she might be threatened.

_'_You're_ the ones who kidnapped _us_,'_ Hiccup thought. "All this time...you've been _here_?" he said aloud.

Valka smiled almost shyly in response.

"You...these are...not all of them are from this world, are they." Now that he was looking, Hiccup even caught sight of a few dragons - though it felt weird calling them 'dragons' in this place, since most of them looked nothing like either the dragons Hiccup was familiar with or dragons of legend - with the Red Death's chips embedded in their heads.

"Many," Valka said softly. "Many precious souls from so many crumbling worlds..."

Toothless, apparently deciding that his human was in no immediate danger, had backed off and sprawled on the ground nearby, a picture of longsuffering boredom. When a creature who at first resembled a starfish but then changed into a little fairy came to sit on his shoulder and giggle, he didn't move, though he did noticeably tense up.

"Are you angry at me?" Valka asked softly.

"What? No, no, of course not! If I'd-" He paused. "Wait, you mean am I mad at you for abandoning me and Dad for twenty years? _Yeah_, Mom, of course I am!"

She lowered her eyes.

"I mean, but..." A two-headed puppy had wandered up to him, sniffed his knee, wagged its tail, transformed into a hulking Berk-style dragon with the physique of a body-builder, and was now happily petting Hiccup's hair. Hiccup was too distracted to do more than give the dragon's arm an absent-minded pat. "...but I, you know...would rather have you back alive after all these years than you be...dead for real." Now he was the one staring at the ground.

_"[It's okay,]"_ the dragon told him reassuringly. _"[Don't be sad. You're in a good and safe world now.]"_

Valka took hold of her companion's hand, and he lowered her gracefully to the ground as if she barely weighed anything. "What do you think of it?" she asked, gesturing an arm out at the bright dreamscape.

"I...I've never seen a dreamscape like this before, it's incredible! Most-" He paused. "Does this Dream Master...know what he's doing, _and_ he's a good guy?"

Valka's shining eyes were answer enough.

"Wow...I've never seen one like that."

They were both distracted by Toothless's sudden exasperated shriek. _"Pụọ!"_ he snarled at the creatures surrounding him, shaking off the one clinging to his arm and waving his hands wildly at the one digging through his hair. As the dragons finally scattered and the humans laughed, Toothless sat down and combed his fingers through his hair to straighten it, grumbling under his breath.

Valka's eyes were alight as she glanced back at her son.

Hiccup grinned. "Mom, this is Toothless."

The Night Fury immediately lifted his head. "Hiccup said my name. Hiccup wants me?"

"Toothless, this is...my mom."

"Hiccup's mom," Toothless repeated, studying her.

Smiling, she held out her hands, silently asking for permission to touch him; he purred and nuzzled his face against her palm. "Ohhh, just _look_ at you, you exquisite thing..."

"I am a very _cool_ dragon, yes?" Toothless smirked.

"_Very_ cool," she sing-songed, touching the braid in his hair and running her palms across his wings and playfully punching his biceps. "So very, remarkably cool~"

"Hiccup's mom likes me," Toothless exulted, hugging her and nuzzling her some more. "She is nice, I like her, Hiccup has a good mother."

"Oh," Valka breathed, noticing the computer chip.

She touched it very gently, and he inclined his head to give her freer access to it, so trusting that he didn't even glance at Hiccup for reassurance. "That is the chip _She_ put in me. It was a horrible BAD chip, I hated it, but Hiccup fixed it and made it better, so now it's okay."

"You're from the Red Death's flock," Valka murmured, her fingertips stroking across his skin in sympathy. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch.

"_Was_," Hiccup corrected. "Those dragons are Berk's flock now."

Tooth grinned fiercely. "_She_ is GONE FOREVER - me and Hiccup killed Her, _us_, He _fried Her brains_ with a virus and then I _blew Her up_ because I am the best dragon and my Hiccup is the best human and we can do _anything_ together, even kill a rotten monster Dream Master. Which we did," he said proudly, basking in Valka's awed look. "Your mom thinks we are very _cool_," he told Hiccup smugly.

"Toothless," Valka said, "may I...may I please look at your chip?"

"Yes. It's a good chip now because Hiccup changed it."

"Just fiddled," Hiccup said sheepishly in response to his mother's frown. "I _never_ touch his core data, I'd never _want_ to. It's mostly flying-related stuff I mess with, and cleaning out or rewriting the Red Death's enslavement sequences I keep finding. That kind of thing."

"Hiccup made it a lot better because He is the very much best human and He's _mine_, Hiccup is my human, you can _borrow_ Him because you love Him and He loves you, but you can't take Him away because He belongs to me always, you agree?"

"Yes, love, of course," Valka murmured soothingly, sparing an affectionate grin at Cloudjumper before returning her attention to the Night Fury's chip. She drew in a breath as she scanned through Toothless's ID. "There really _is_ a dragon flock in Berk?! The queen-" She stared at Hiccup in amazement.

He waved his hands as if trying to fend her off. "I have _no idea_, it's some weird dragon thing!"

"Hiccup is a very much better queen than _She_ was," Toothless purred. "I'm the best consort and I fix all His mistakes."

Hiccup groaned in embarrassment as his mother laughed.

"A human male as queen of a dragon flock," Valka said admiringly. "The two of you truly are remarkable."

"Yes yes yes," Toothless agreed happily.

Still grinning, Valka went on sifting through the Night Fury's files. "All these lands you've been to...I'd like a copy of these notes."

"Sure," Hiccup agreed.

"No other Night Furies..."

"Yeah... We've been _looking_, but we haven't found a single one. Sometimes...sometimes I'm afraid that Toothless might be the last one."

"He may very well be," Valka murmured, petting the dragon's hair.

Hiccup sighed. "I hope not."

"You are sad?" Toothless asked, going to pet Hiccup instead.

Hiccup chuckled and half-heartedly fended him off. "I'm fine, bud. It's _you_ I'm worried about. Thinking about you being all alone, I just-"

"Alone?" Toothless repeated in alarm, and clutched him. "I am not alone, You are staying with me, I'm not alone because You my Hiccup are _not_ going away, yes? Yes...?"

"I meant other Night Furies, Toothless!" Returning his agitated friend's embrace to comfort him, Hiccup smiled helplessly at his mother. "Dragons are so touchy-feely..."

"Yes, I think I did notice that at some point during the last twenty years," Valka chuckled, watching Toothless fawn over Hiccup like an adoring cat.

Toothless eventually calmed down long enough to let Valka geek out over his chip some more, and he obligingly sat as still as he could while playing with bits of Hiccup's sleeve.

"What's this?" Valka murmured in dismay, studying Toothless's extensively patched flying sequence. "Oh, sweetheart..."

"Look," Toothless said gleefully, reaching up to nudge her fingers out of the way and manipulate the chip himself. "My Hiccup is so _super very awesome smart_ He wrote ALL THIS, if it weren't for Him I'd be crippled, but look, see, I can _fly again_."

Valka did not miss the fact that Hiccup was noticeably wincing and squirming.

"Me and Hiccup fly together," Toothless said proudly. "We are two halves that make one whole together. Even though He's not a dragon. It's _special_."

"I suppose even Drago's brutality can be mended sometimes," Valka murmured.

"It...wasn't Drago who maimed Toothless," Hiccup muttered, unable to meet her eyes, "or his trappers."

Valka frowned.

"Hiccup lamed me," Toothless explained with a smirk. "He feels very guilty, so He does whatever I say when I talk about _poor hurt tail broken sequence all Your fault~_, anything I want."

"At least you're honest," Hiccup said dryly. Toothless playfully bit him; Hiccup grinned and threatened to go for the weak point under the dragon's jaw.

"Not fair," Toothless pouted, protecting his weakness by resting his chin on Hiccup's shoulder. The movement sent the end of his tail flopping over Hiccup's knee to counterbalance.

Hiccup smiled sadly at the bright red prosthetic and stroked it between his fingers. "Well, at least we match now..."

"Your leg," Valka acknowledged. "How did that happen, by the way?"

Now Toothless was the deeply ashamed one, scrunching down all the way behind Hiccup and muttering, "Failed, _messed up_, my fault, hurt Hiccup, bad, did it wrong..."

"Toothless saved my life," Hiccup said loudly, leaning all his weight back against the dragon so that Toothless was forced to unscrunch. Their eyes met, Toothless guilty, Hiccup grinning. "You've saved me so often I've lost count. So what if you couldn't save _all_ of me _one_ time. I'm still alive, and I'm fine, and we're together."

"Together," Toothless murmured, touching his head to Hiccup's. He seemed to be so comfortable with Valka by now that he didn't even glance at her when she picked up the end of his tail.

Valka seemed to be fully absorbed in studying Toothless's prosthetic when she said, a little too casually, "So...your father..."

"He really misses you, Mom," Hiccup said seriously. "He may not say much about it, but I know he misses you a lot."

"Mm..." Toothless was teasingly inching his tail fins farther and farther away from her curious fingers, and, with her head ducked down as she playfully crept her fingers after the retreating tail, Hiccup couldn't see her face or guess what she might be thinking.

"Mom...?"

"To think," she murmured, "dragons living peacefully in Berk...I didn't think people could change so drastically, but now...so many years after I gave up, you come along with your Night Fury, who-" She grinned a little, "-who just barely earned a diploma and whose occupation is listed as 'Personal Assistant to Hiccup Stoickson.' They put your poor dragons in _school_?"

"The younger ones, yeah," Hiccup chuckled. "Mostly because the grown-ups didn't know what else to do with them - they couldn't separate us. You should have seen Toothless completely flip his lid when they tried to give him a different class schedule than mine."

"I belong with Hiccup," Toothless said flatly, "and Hiccup belongs with me. He's _mine_, no one is allowed to take Him away." He paused. "Except Astrid, _sometimes_, because they are going to be mates when they finally stop courting so it's _fair_, but Hiccup doesn't like when I talk about it in front of other people, so I won't."

"By the way, Mom, I have a girlfriend," Hiccup said dryly. "Fiancée, actually."

Valka's face lit up. "Really?! Oooh, what's she like? Do I know her?"

"Astrid Hofferson, she's a couple months older than me..."

"Ohhhh, I remember the Hoffersons' baby, such a cute little thing!"

"Still is," Hiccup said with a grin.

"She grew up pretty, then?" Valka said with a grin of her own.

"_Ohhh_, yes, I've had the hots for her since we were, like, ten..." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "But she's also _tough_... If not for Toothless, Astrid would have totally owned dragon training."

Valka cocked her head in confused curiosity.

"I make Hiccup win, _always_," Toothless smirked. "Because I'm the best, so He's the best when He's with me."

"They put a dragon in dragon training?"

"No, I mean - this was still during the war. I'd found Toothless but was hiding him in the storefield near Raven Point, it was kind of a mess..."

"Right in the middle of the war," Valka echoed thoughtfully.

"Yeah; it was _exhausting_. I'd have school in the morning and dragon training in the afternoon for as long as Gobber felt it took to run us ragged, then work at the labs afterward if there was still time, sneaking off to see Toothless at night and on weekends, and squeezing in homework during every spare second...it was _awful_."

"Should have come to stay with me in the storefield instead of go to horrible _school_," Toothless suggested.

Hiccup laughed. "I _wish_... Would've been harder to work on your chip, though. I actually did learn a lot in dragon training and at work, even if it wasn't exactly the stuff I was being taught."

"That chip is like all the others, then?" Valka asked. "It's connected directly to his brain?"

"Unfortunately, yes... There's no way to remove them without killing the dragons, especially with how young they say they were when the chips were implanted. But we've done our best to at least adapt them, so that the dragons have more freedom and control over their own chips."

"It used to be a bad chip," Toothless grumbled. "Bad, bad, bad, I _hated_ it. It made me do things I didn't want to do and feel things I didn't want to feel, and it _hurt_." He smiled a little. "But then Hiccup caught me and stole me away from _Her_ and started rewriting my chip, and it's better now and it doesn't hurt anymore, and when it hurts He always says sorry and loves me so it's okay. I can't tear it out of my head or I'll die, so it has to stay there, but it's okay because it's Hiccup's chip now so it can stay."

"...Toothless," Hiccup said in his We've Been Over This Already voice, "it's _your_ chip. It belongs to you. I only _borrow_ it sometimes because you're way too nice and let me mess with it way more than I should, but it's _your_ chip."

"I don't want it," Toothless said stubbornly.

Hiccup gave him a serious look. "It's got at least half of what you _are_ on there. Your identification and all your records, your data storage, all the Norse you've learned, all your _memories_, Toothless..."

"You have it backed up, I assume?" Valka remarked.

"Of course." Hiccup held up his arm, indicating the chip inside. "I've got his core data backed up on my own chip, and I copy _all_ his files onto a data drive that I carry with me everywhere. I've also got them backed up at home, and two extra copies locked up in two different places..." He grinned a little. "I know it's paranoid, but I don't care. If something catastrophic were ever to happen, I refuse to lose my best friend just because some crazy tyrant decided to turn him into a cyborg."

"I don't need a stupid chip to tell me who I am," Toothless pouted. "You are my other half, Hiccup." He jabbed at the chip behind his ear. "It doesn't matter what happens to _this thing_; no one can ever erase You from my heart."

"Heh..." Hiccup smiled, affectionately but a little self-consciously giving Toothless a hug. "I love how you guys can say things like that with a straight face and totally _mean_ it..."

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: Sorry if this one sounds kind of choppy - I wrote this chapter out of order in several disjointed sections, and had to rearrange them and try to join them together after I'd gotten everything typed. Hopefully I can smooth things out better if/when I ever get around to the final draft.

I included the "dragon queen" headcanon because it just makes soooo much sense to me, especially now that I figured out how to integrate it with real canon. XD


	7. Trust, chapter 2

_**His Soul Reflects My Own: Trust**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 2 (rough draft)**

I wake up because Hiccup is-

It's dark. I can see but Hiccup can't, He didn't turn on any lights. But He climbed up here anyway, He is perched on the edge of my bed staring at me, feeling so much _distress pain anger grief anxiety_ that I think that woke me up just by itself. "Hiccup?!" I try to sit up, but He puts a hand on my shoulder trying to make me lie down again.

"Hey...hey, bud, I didn't mean to wake you..." His voice is soft even though His feelings are raging. I don't know why humans try to hide so very much.

"You are upset?"

"No, I'm fine, Toothless." A 'lie.' I don't like when He lies to me. "Hey...do you think you could turn over and lie still for a while? You can go back to sleep; I just had an idea for another mod and couldn't stop thinking about it. You mind if I try it out?"

I think...I think He is still lying, because mods make Him excited and sometimes frustrated but always happy, but right now He is not happy at all. But of course I want to give Him whatever He asks for, so I move until I'm facing the wall and He can reach the chip. His fingers are so gentle brushing my hair aside, I don't know why it makes me uneasy. He opens the chip and is still so careful looking through my files, it is easy for me to watch Him and follow Him inside my head.

He opens the store of video recordings from my eyes. I hear Him take a deep breath, then He opens the folder for one of the dates, a few days ago- Oh. That battle. The bad one that I think we lost. The very good one that we won and became alphas is in the next day's folder, but Hiccup doesn't want that one.

He searches for a while, looking at videos before I finally hear in His breathing that He found the ones He was searching for. It's when we landed in front of that rotten Drago human and Hiccup wouldn't let me shoot him, but just started talking at him instead. Hiccup cuts the video there. Then He moves down the minutes barely watching any of them, and when He finds a video that shows boring flying over ocean, He cuts it there, too. He takes a deep breath.

Somehow I know. Before He even does it, I know what He's going to do, and suddenly I'm afraid but I can't stop Him because I love Him and I give Him permission to do whatever He wants to me, but even though I can't stop Him I can make myself feel better. I copy all the video pieces He selected and then, quietly, I hide the copies where He can't get to them unless I let Him, where He doesn't even know they are.

"...Toothless?"

"Mm?"

"Did you...do something to the files just now?"

He sensed it. He's uncertain and maybe doesn't know exactly what I did, but He thinks maybe I did something.

I don't like to lie, but a very much few times I will do it. I do it now. I pretend to be so very sleepy even though I'm very awake. _"I think You are hiding something from me..."_ I don't say it in Norse; I say it in dream language because I know He won't understand it. But I pretend I'm saying it in dream language because I'm so very sleepy I forgot to speak Norse.

"...Toothless, are you still awake?"

Sleeeeepy fake sleepy voice. "Hiccup...love to Hiccup..."

"...Heh." He pats my head and then searches in the chip again.

I know what He's looking for. He will look at the audio recordings from my ears next, and before He even finds the folder, I rush quick and copy the files from the end of the bad battle and hide them away, too. Then I watch Hiccup find the same files I copied. He selects the same start and end times as the videos, and He cuts them there.

Then He takes a deep breath and pauses again. He pets my hair, and now all the anger is gone and all He feels is _grief pain shame_. Then He does what I knew He would do, He deletes and destroys all the files between the cuts He made. I stay very, very still, but my heart is beating very fast.

"Toothless...I'm sorry."

I don't know if I should still pretend to be asleep or not.

Yes, I should, because He's not finished. He takes another deep breath and sets His other hand on me again, not to caress me this time but like He's trying to hold me down, even though He thinks I'm asleep. And even awake, doesn't He know I am glad to give Him whatever He asks for?

"I'm...sorry...I'm so sorry..."

He's not looking at surface files now. He's opening the core of the chip even _more_ carefully and gently, more than He even does when He's making backups, opening my memory store, searching-

He is looking for my memories of the same day. The same battle. I can't breathe because I think I know what He's going to do, but...but...it's my _core data_, He promised, He promised He would never...?!

I'm too shocked and sad to save the memory He's looking for, I only watch as He searches for it and finds it. It's the same memory that happened during the files He deleted. Because it's a memory and not a recording, all I see and hear is meeting the Dream Master's eyes, feeling the pain and horror and panic as he cut my ties to my beloved queen and bound me to himself, and then a horrible blur after that, a blur where all I knew was being given orders to kill but not wanting to and finally doing it anyway because it was too hard to resist. And one clear flash, Dad dead and Hiccup grieving, and horrible pain from Hiccup being so angry at me even though I never found out why, then the blur again and- Something is wrong. Orders to kill- Dad is dead, Hiccup is angry at _me_-

It's gone. I feel frightened and empty, and my body is shaking. There was something so very important I was thinking about, but it's gone now; a memory, rushing to face that Drago and then breaking free of the Dream Master's hold to answer the call of my true queen, but everything in between is _gone_. Hiccup...erased my memory. He promised He never would, but He did. He is lying here sobbing because His heart is broken, so I put my arms around Him to comfort Him.

"T-Toothless...you were awake...?!"

"Yes."

"Y-You...I erased...your memory."

The pain in His heart is so strong, I feel it so much that tears are coming out of my eyes, too. "Yes."

"Wh- Why did you let me do that?!"

"You don't like that memory, so You made it gone. Now it won't hurt You anymore."

"No..._no_...Toothless, I'm- sorry, I'm so sorry, I...I had to...I s-still have it backed up, I- I can c-copy it back, I-I didn't... Toothless forgive me, I-"

"Yes." Of course. Always.

"Toothless...l-let me go, I'll go get the drive, I'll put it back, I-"

"You want me to have this memory?"

"...It's your memory. I have no right to _touch_ your memories, I can't...I can't believe I..."

He didn't say _Yes_. "This chip is Yours. Belongs to Hiccup. If You don't want a memory on it, You erase it." Hiccup's scent and my love for Him are in my brain and my heart, not the chip. It's all I need. Everything on the chip is His, He can do whatever He wants with it, He can delete it all if He wants and it's okay. Holding Him like this is enough.

"Toothless...Toothless, forgive me..."

"Yes, yes, yes." I open the chip myself and start to erase everything on it except the flying sequence because I know He loves it so much, but He gasps and stops me. "What are you DOING?! You nearly _wiped your entire chip_, Toothless!"

"Yes. I want my Hiccup to be happy."

He cries again, and I hold Him and comfort Him and pat His hair until He is finally quiet. _Grief misery shame guilt shame_ are so strong from Him that it feels suffocating, but I don't care. He hurt me, but I don't care because He hurt Himself doing it so much more. "What do I do to make You happy again?"

"You...you are...incredible...Toothless, I am so, so sorry..."

"I'm not mad at You. Don't say sorry sorry sorry, because I'm not mad. I love You."

"I hate...myself. I hate _myself_."

Tears are filling my eyes again. "That is what hurts me," I realize. Hiccup destroying some of my core data only hurts a little. The hatred of my other half hurts a lot. "Don't do that. Please."

"But...everything is my fault, I could have...if I'd just... I don't know what to do...!"

"Rest. Sleep. You are not alone, we will help You because we love You." All of us, me and His Astrid and His mother and His friends and our whole flock, why does He feel alone when all of us are _here_?

He curls up and He finally does fall asleep, and then I put Him down in His own bed and I watch over Him until the sun rises.

o.o.o.o.o

He is still miserable when He wakes up, and my heart aches, but He won't talk about it. We go downstairs and together we make breakfast for ourselves and for Mom and for Cloudjumper and for-

"Where's Dad?" I just realized I haven't seen him in almost a week. Hiccup drops the pitcher on the floor. I pick it up; it's good that He didn't put any orange juice in it yet. Mom and Cloudjumper are staring at me. "Didn't he ever come home?" The last time I saw Dad was that battle, the bad one. The rotten Drago told Squirt to go kill him and Mom, and- Did he die?! But no, Mom is here safe, Dad must be safe, too. But where has he been all this time?

"S...Stoick?" Mom says. She is shocked, I don't know why.

"Maybe he is upstairs. I will go look."

Upstairs is empty, there is no one here, but I go look in Dad's room anyway. Why is it only Mom's room now? They are mates, human mates sleep in the same room, but I can tell that Dad has not been here for days. Maybe he went on a business trip and I forgot...but then wouldn't Skullcrusher go with him? But Skullcrusher lives with Eret now instead of us, I am confused... I will ask Hiccup.

Mom is angry, I hear her shouting. I fly down the stairs and run to my Hiccup to shield Him from Mom who is so angry and Cloudjumper who is growling at Hiccup, my small human who might break from just one hit from a dragon. I wrap my arms and my wings around Hiccup and hiss at them.

"Toothless...it's okay, bud, I'm fine..."_ misery pain shame_

"You leave Hiccup alone," I growl.

"Toothless," Mom says angrily, "one of your memories was stolen from you."

"Not stolen. Hiccup erased it, so it's okay."

Mom and Cloudjumper stare at me. Hiccup pushes me until I let Him go. "See?" He says. His voice is hard and bitter. "He already knows. He's fine with it, aren't you, Toothless? You are totally okay with me waltzing into the computer chip wired to your brain and wiping or rewriting or installing whatever strikes my fancy, right?"

"...Are You angry?" Of course He's angry. Is He angry at me? Why? Why? What did I do wrong?

"You were _awake_ when I did it, weren't you. You _watched _me do it, and you didn't lift a finger to stop me."

"Yes." What does He want? What does He want? Tell me and I will give it to You...

"See?" He reaches around as if to hug me, but His fingers wrap around my throat instead. I can still breathe, but it's hard to look at Him now because I can't turn my head. "This guy will let me do whatever I want to him. _Anything_ I want. He's like my slave, he'll follow my orders just like Bludvist's slave followed his. I could strangle him or slit his throat, and he wouldn't stop me; he'd just sit there and let me do it, right, Toothless?"

What do you want, Half Of Me...?

His fingers slip away from my throat, now He's leaning on me and tears are shining in His eyes as He says, "_Look_ at him...he's a freaking Night Fury, he should be far away somewhere flying free, the most incredible dragon in the sky, but instead he's trapped _here_...crippled, enslaved, being a crutch for the most selfish, pathetic, worthless, sorry excuse for chief Berk has ever seen..."

Mom is crying now too, but when she reaches for Him, He turns away and stumbles to the door, and I go after Him but when I touch His shoulder He cringes again, and all I can do is follow my other half as if we have been cut back into two pieces, His pain and my pain trapped in different cages, unable to touch.

_To be continued..._


	8. Trust, chapter 3

_**His Soul Reflects My Own: Trust**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 3 (rough draft)**

The humans have big papers spread out over all the tables and are arguing about them, so we dragons are bored.

My troop waits together by the big fountain. Meatlug is drinking out of it; Skullcrusher is looking at his learn-how-to-read book that Hiccup gave him; Barf and Belch are napping; Hookfang is eating a snack he stole from Tuffnut when Tuffnut wasn't looking; and Stormfly is undoing my ponytail so she can tie more braids in my hair.

Meatlug wipes her mouth and looks at me. _"You are sad,"_ she says.

_"Yes. Half Of Me is angry at me."_

The 'twins' open their eyes and frown. _"Your half is never angry at You."_

_"He was when the human queen his father died."_ Hookfang swallows the last bite and licks his fingers. _"But that's the only time ever."_

What? _"The human queen?"_

_"My partner who is gone now,"_ Skullcrusher says. _"I never thought I would ever like a human, but I liked him. I miss him."_

_"The humans grieve for him,"_ Meatlug says sadly. _"He was a good queen to them, so it's okay for a little while."_ She smiles at me. _"But they love Your other half, too. Our consort One Who Hiccups will also be a good new alpha to them."_

I don't understand. "The chief? Dad?"

Stormfly stops braiding and looks at me. _"What's wrong?"_

"Dad is-" Hiccup is the humans' alpha now. He couldn't be alpha if Dad was still here. Me and Hiccup can be alphas together because our flock has both dragons and humans, but He couldn't be the humans' leader if they still already had one. Did Dad 'retire'? I don't remember that. And Meatlug and Hookfang said... "Dad is dead?"

They are all staring at me.

_"Don't You remember? You went to look at his body."_

I...I don't remember, I- Oh. _"Maybe that was in the memory Half Of Me erased."_ Dad is dead...Hiccup wanted to hide it from me...?

Stormfly's hands go still in my hair again. Meatlug gasps, Hookfang's eyes go narrow, the twins sit up and stare at me.

_"Consort...erased Your memory?"_

_"You LET him?"_ Hookfang says angrily.

Suddenly I feel like I did something wrong. I try to explain. _"He is...my other half. He...has permission."_ I don't like the way they are looking at me. _"He was hurting."_

Stormfly curls into my side, and I put my arm around her. The twins crawl close to lay their heads against us, so we hold them too as they clasp each other's hands, and Meatlug hugs as much of us as she can reach. Skullcrusher touches my shoulder, and Hookfang crouches close and spreads his wings over us all, shielding us. All of us need comfort right now, sharing love and warmth together, to try to keep the confusion and the sadness as far away as we can.

We have allied with humans. They are our flockmates now, our family. They are not dragons, but we love them anyway, so sometimes they do things we don't understand, and we get hurt. It's okay. It's okay. There is enough love here to cover and soothe all the hurt.

Snotlout is yelling now, over there where the humans are. "Fine, then I'll just take Hookfang out there and _show_ you! ...Hookfang?"

"Where'd the dragons go?"

"Oh. They're all over there, um, being dragons."

Our humans want us. They approach us, looking at us in confusion like they don't understand us, just like we don't understand them.

"I've seen dragons do this before," Fishlegs mutters, "this 'comfort huddle' thing. I wonder if something happened...?"

"What is this, a little girls' sleepover? Get out of there, Hookfang, we're-"

Hiccup sees that all of us are looking at Him. My dragon troopmates want to understand why He did this thing to me and why it's okay, but they don't know how to ask. I know He doesn't want to tell them even if they knew how to ask. He stops moving and He gasps, and suddenly He is afraid, and He turns and walks away.

I have to follow Him, He is leaving me. I don't have to pull free because all six of us are rushing after Him, I reach Him first and I'm relieved but I don't think I am allowed to hold His hand the way I want to. Stormfly stays by my side, still giving silent comfort. The twins hang back, nervous of Him for the first time; Skullcrusher is looking at Him as if he has never seen Him before and doesn't like it. Meatlug steps in front of Him trying to see His face and read His expression.

Hookfang grabs Hiccup's arm, the one with the chip in it, and holds it up. Hiccup stares at him, His face has turned very pale and He can't keep walking because Hookfang is holding Him still. He has never been scared of Hookfang before, not even a long time ago when Hookfang tried to kill Him; but now He is frightened, so I growl a warning even though I know Hookfang won't hurt Him.

Hookfang is glaring into Hiccup's eyes as he says, "It's good for me that I have no _human_ to be half of myself. I pity Toothless."

He is not holding Hiccup hard enough to hurt His arm, but I can tell that he has hurt His heart so badly that I step close to Hiccup and order him to back away. Hookfang lets go and retreats, scornful and pitying at the same time. He's never had a second half, so I forgive him because he doesn't know. But it still hurts...

"What was _that_ all about?"

"Whaddaya mean you have no human half? What am I, chopped liver?"

Hookfang snickers. _"Partner Friend Interesting Funny Bossy Thing. Never my other half, silly."_

"Hey, no babbling! Speak Norse!"

_"It's not my fault you can't understand my language, stupid human."_ Hookfang playfully knocks Snotlout into the nearest fountain and then grins at him.

"Hookfang...!"

Ruffnut and Tuffnut laugh, and then go to push him back in when he tries to climb out.

Hiccup is trying to escape from us, but the rest of our troop is surrounding Him, demanding.

"What was he talking about, Hiccup? Did you do something?"

"Yes," Hiccup says. His voice is low and He won't look at anyone's eyes. "They're mad at me because I...did something bad to Toothless."

"_Huh_?!"

"The great Dragon Master, harming a dragon? I suppose the end of the world won't be far behind." Eret's voice sounds like he's joking, but there is no laughter in his eyes, only disappointment.

Astrid is frowning at Hiccup. "I thought you were just going to delete the visual and audio recordings. They were going to expire next week, anyway."

"Yeah, I _did_ delete the recordings." Hiccup jerks free and turns to look at us, His face is angry but His feelings are all _shame pain guilt shame_. "Then I went into his core data and deleted the memory, too."

"His... _What_?"

"You deleted your dragon's _memory_...?!"

I don't know what to do. It hurt Him for me to keep that memory, but it's also hurting Him to have it gone.

Hiccup spreads His arms. "I altered his core data for my own selfish reasons, I treated him like a piece of property instead of a person, and I don't regret it. If _any_ of you has a problem with that, then challenge me one-on-one."

We stare at him. A one-on-one fight, He will lose, any of us can beat Him easy. Not just the dragons, any of the humans can beat Him, too, because He is the weakest one when I am not there to make Him strong. Does He..._want_ to lose? Yes, He does. Why? Why? I don't care that He said one-on-one, I don't care that He's my brother-alpha who has the right to set the rules; if anyone takes this challenge, I'll make them fight _me_, not Him-

No one says anything. No one will challenge Him. No one will...punish Him, the way He wants to be punished. He drops His arms and turns His back and walks away again, and this time I am the only one who follows. I want...to comfort Him, I _need_ His comfort, but He won't let me... I reach out to Him, I know He'll cringe and hate me but I have to try anyway-

He accepts my touch. I'm so relieved, I take His hand and grip it tight, and He doesn't respond but He doesn't chase me away, and for a while I try to be happy just being close to Him.

He hides at the labs for a while, He takes a computer and shuts us into a room with no windows and types on the computer for a long time while I get bored and fall asleep on Him. Then we go to the edges of the city and talk to the workers there who are rebuilding, and we help them for a while. Anytime we see anyone from our troop, we escape and hide again.

But more and more people know anyway, even though we didn't tell them. Some of them are angry at Him and feel sorry for me, and many of them especially the dragons are confused, and some of the humans don't know 'why it's such a big deal.' Those are the ones Hiccup gets mad at. "So I guess it wouldn't be a big deal if someone were to crack open _your_ brain and start wiping out _your_ memories. You'd just take it with no complaints, huh, since it's _not a big deal_?"

When it gets dark, Hiccup is too dejected to even fly, He walks slow with His head hanging, following me because He's too tired to find the way home Himself. I stop and I hold His face in my hands so He has to look at me.

"It's okay. If every human and every dragon abandons You and rejects You, it's still okay, because You always still have _me_. I'm the best, I will never reject You, even if you rot like _Her_ or like that Drago, I will stay with You because You are the other half of me and I love You. So don't be afraid and sad anymore. I'm better than everyone else, yes? Even just me alone, I'm still enough. It's okay."

"Toothless..."

I take His hands and press them over my heart. "You can do anything to me, it's okay. I'll let You. Because You love me and You never want to hurt me." How do I say it? Ah. "I trust You. That's why it's okay. No one else I trust with my whole heart, with everything that makes me _me_; but You I trust because half of my heart is Yours, too."

He is leaning His face on my shoulder and my sleeve is wet now. When I let go of His hands, He doesn't pull away, instead He puts His arms around me to hold onto me. I hug Him too. Maybe now He will be happy again.

When we come to the house, Mom and Cloudjumper are gone, but it's not empty because Astrid and my friend Stormfly are there. Stormfly runs to greet me and hugs me because she's happy to see me, and I'm happy to see her, too, and Hiccup and Astrid do their kissing for a long time. I get my notebook and I open it to show Stormfly my new drawings, and she wants to draw something on the next page, so I let her. Our humans finally stop kissing.

"I'm kind of...surprised to see you..."

"Let's go out. Just the two of us. I think we need some time alone."

"..."

"I won't say a word about it, I _promise_. I know it's something you have to work out yourself, with Toothless." She caresses His face. "I know today was rough, Hiccup. Come with me."

"No dragons," Stormfly sighs, and leans on me.

"Astrid's turn," I grumble. I got to keep Hiccup for a long time, so I have to share Him now because He belongs to me but He belongs to some other people, too.

Astrid smiles and comes to kiss us both goodbye. "Thank you, guys. Think you can be good while we're out?"

"We will sit on the couch and watch a movie," Stormfly says because she knows she's supposed to.

"Toothless, you know where the leftovers are, right?" Hiccup asks. Already He looks a little lighter, a little relieved. I don't like it, but...He is human. He loves dragons so very much sometimes I think maybe He has a dragon heart in a human body, but some very few times He's like this where He's too tired and battered and needs some human time to make him alive again. Only a very few times. But one of those times is now, and Astrid is here to take care of Him this one time that I can't.

"Yes. We will eat the 'leftovers' food for dinner."

"Good. Stay out of trouble."

When our humans are gone, we try to obey, we put a movie into the movie player and press the buttons, but it's boring and it's nighttime that I always like more than daytime. Stormfly bites me to play. We wrestle, and then when we realize we are breaking the house and the humans will get mad, we run outside and Stormfly flies from tree to tree, slow so I can keep up on the ground.

Wings. Not Stormfly's. A big dragon drops out of the sky, arms wrap around me.

_"Caught You,"_ Hookfang laughs.

I am too much used to Hiccup, I forgot what it's like to be grabbed by strong people. _"I don't want to be caught by you."_

_"That's not an order, so I don't have to obey it, hah."_ Hookfang flies again holding me with one arm, and I can get free of him but then I will fall and get hurt, so I have to let him carry me. Stupid dragon. Maybe we can have a fun fight when he lands. Stormfly is worried and follows us to Snotlout's house where the rest of our troop are waiting, except Eret and Skullcrusher who are not here.

"I caught Him~" Hookfang drops me in front of Snotlout.

"Hah! Awesome!" Snotlout grabs my neck and pushes me at Fishlegs. "There ya go. Have at it."

Hookfang thinks it's funny because he knows Snotlout will be in trouble soon and it will be fun to watch, but Stormfly and Meatlug are upset to see their alpha disrespected.

Fishlegs is nervous. "Um, Snotlout, maaaybe you shouldn't manhandle him like that. He _is_ the alpha dragon now, you know..."

"Pffft, he's fine. Get into that chip already!" I take Snotlout's wrist to make him let go of me and I push him away. Then because he challenged me, I twist his arm behind his back. He is much stronger than Hiccup, so I don't have to be gentle. "Ow ow ow ow oooooowwwww, Hookfang do something!"

Hookfang laughs.

"Useless dragon! _Ow_! Hiccup's gonna be REALLY mad at you if you don't let me go _right now_, Toothless!"

I think about this. "No. Hiccup will not be mad at me."

"Aaaaahhhh, stupid dragon...!" It takes a long time for him to scream "Fine! Fine! I'm sorry!", but he finally does and I let him go.

"Tuffnut's turn," Ruffnut says to me.

I look at Fishlegs, who is very anxious. "Urk...! Um, don't hurt me, Toothless, wait, don't...!"

"I will not hurt you."

"Oh, good... Sorry, Toothless, I just, um...we were just, uh, curious about, uh, something."

"What do you want?"

"Ummmm, do you think we could, uh, just take a tiny peek at your chip...?"

"You want to look at this chip?"

He smiles and nods.

I smile back and tilt my head to show the chip. "You can try."

He stares at me. "Really?"

"Just access it already!" Snotlout yells.

Fishlegs's fingers are much bigger than Hiccup's, but I know he tries to be gentle when he touches the chip. "Uhhhh..."

"Cool!" Tuffnut says. "Toothless's chip is all...numberey."

Fishlegs stares. "Um, guys...I can't access it."

Snotlout is impatient. "Whaddaya mean you can't access it? It's right there."

"Hiccup's got crazy security on it...I _might_ be able to hack through, but definitely not before he and Astrid get back."

Tuffnut points at me. "Hey, you tricked us!"

"It's Hiccup's chip. None of you are Hiccup." I lean back and raise my head so that Fishlegs is not touching the chip anymore.

Snotlout waves his arms in annoyance. "Oh come _on_, don't you _want_ to get your memories back, Toothless?"

What?

"That's what we were thinking," Fishlegs explains. "I think...I think I _might_ be able to retrieve the memory and put it back together, that's all I was going to do..."

I think about this. Hiccup destroyed that memory because it hurt Him, but it's still hurting Him even gone. I don't think He knew it would do that. Maybe He would like a 'second chance.' I will ask Him when I get Him back.

"You can look," I tell Fishlegs. "You can touch the one memory. You are not allowed to touch anything else. And you have to store it on _your_ chip, not this one."

"Of course! Of course, yeah, I wasn't planning on messing with anything else, anyway." His voice gets very low and I think he says, "Hiccup would kill me if I tried," but maybe I'm wrong because Hiccup never kills anyone. "You sure you want it on my chip, though? I mean, it's your memory, don't you-?"

"Hiccup didn't want it on this chip, so if you find it again, it will not stay on this chip."

"How come _you_ aren't that loyal to me?" Snotlout says to his dragon.

Hookfang rolls his eyes and says in dream language, _"Because I'm not an idiot."_

"Norse, dude, Norse!"

I tell the security to go away so that Fishlegs can open the chip and look in it. He is very careful, more clumsy than Hiccup but still careful, and he gets distracted a lot, looking and looking and being happy. The human twins get distracted, too, and when Tuffnut reaches for the chip, I hold his arm and threaten to bite him until he backs away. Then the two of them get bored and start play-fighting with each other and with their dragon. I'm getting bored, too, and so is everyone else.

Snotlout finally comes and yells at Fishlegs until he looks for the lost memory again instead of my score records, and when it's hard for him to navigate my core data without touching anything, he tries the recording folders instead. I remember the files that I copied and hid. I bring them out of their hidden place and put them where Fishlegs can find them.

"Whoa!"

"What? What is it, did you find it?"

"I found - I mean, um, it's not the _memory_, per se, but it's the next best thing - you know how everything the dragons see and hear is automatically recorded onto their chips, right? I found video and audio segments that were isolated from the rest and seem to match the same timeframe as that little gap in his memory storage. If we can-"

"Blah blah blah; so did you find it or not?"

"If I overlay the audio files onto the video files, it'll show us _exactly_ what happened - not just Toothless's memory of it, which would naturally be distorted; it's just a straight-forward, objective recording."

"Cool! Let's watch it!"

"But it's...it's from the end of that battle, the-"

"Move over!"

Snotlout is rougher than Fishlegs but he doesn't damage anything so I can't bite him, and now we can all see it on our displays. The humans who don't have chips crowd close to Fishlegs so they can watch on his holo.

_Hiccup standing in front of me, holding His arm out so I won't shoot that Drago even though he's looking at us with an ugly, rotten smile. "-of Stoick the Vast? What shame he must feel."_

_"...All of this loss, and for what? To become unstoppable? To rule the world...?"_

"Come ON, Hiccup, just punch him already, geez!"

"Heh, he'd probably break his puny little arm if he hit that guy."

"Ssshh, I can't hear!"

Hiccup tries to show love to the foreigner like He always does, and always He wins somehow, but this time...this time it...it doesn't work. I knew it wouldn't, I knew looking in that Drago's eyes that he is the most rotten monster Hiccup ever met except for _Her_, and He didn't try to love _Her_ that 'Red Death,' He just killed Her like He was supposed to, and I know He should kill this Drago, too.

But He doesn't, He just talks. But Drago doesn't let Him talk, and he calls to Squirt but Squirt isn't the one who's our flockmate and loves Hiccup, this is the Dream Master from back then when he didn't have a name and he was still a slave and he is coming to hurt my Hiccup, no no no no, I try to tell the Hiccup in the video to _flee_ and I try to tell the me in the video to DISOBEY Him and to _fight_, but they are only recordings, not real. They can't hear me. They won't do what I want them to do.

The Dream Master doesn't kill Hiccup, he...attacks...me, instead. He doesn't touch me, but we can't see anything except darkness and blurs of snow, and the video me is screaming, screaming. Then he stops screaming and he looks at Hiccup and I think maybe it's all right, except that Hiccup looks worried. And then Hiccup is backing away and even though I can't sense His emotions, I still see in His body and hear in His voice that He is frightened.

_"Stop! Snap out of it!"_

Why is He frightened of me?! The other me, the not-me? I would never-

The not-me raises his hands. At Hiccup. His hands are glowing with my fire. He is going to shoot my Hiccup and kill Him.

I'm running, I'm running running trying to find them, trying to find that battlefield with the snow to stop that monster not-me from hurting my most precious thing I love so much, but I still see it there in front of my eyes, it won't go away no matter how fast I run.

_"No! Don't!"_

Hiccup knows He is going to die. The terror and horror in His eyes, I can't stand it, it's a blade in my heart. I have to find Him I have to _save Him_-

_"Son!"_

_"Dad! No!"_

There is fire, and I scream. There is snow, and silence, and...

I'm crying now so I can't see anymore, but I can still hear Hiccup's voice, His panic and despair, I rub the tears away and I see Hiccup with His heart broken because His father that He loves is dead. My Hiccup is alive and safe, safe, safe, but...

It was...me. Dad really is dead. Because I...raised my hands and...Hiccup was going to die but then...

It was me.

It was me, and Hiccup hates me and this is why He hurts so much and this is what He wanted erased and gone, _gone_.

I'm on the ground now, I don't know where I am. I'm crying and crying and my wrists hurt and I don't know why but then I see it's because I am twisting and clawing at them. These...hands...are how I hurt people. These hands hurt people I love. I...

_Replay selections_

_Add to permanent library_

_Copy to an external storage device_

This is...a recording. It isn't now, it's...it already happened...I can't stop it, I can't change anything. Dad is already dead...gone forever, and I can never find him and give him back to my Hiccup. The not-me already hurt my Hiccup so badly He is broken, something in Him is broken. Hiccup tried to erase that memory and fix it but He couldn't, and I...

I can't go back to my Hiccup. If I am close to Him, I will hurt Him. I thought I belong with Him always, but He will die if I stay with Him.

-_He can find me_. This _chip_ that I hate, I search search search for the tracker until I find it, and I turn it off so it can't call to Him anymore. He can't find me now, even if He looks for me.

But He will know I came this far, so I have to go back, in the opposite direction around the city, somewhere far away where I can't ever hurt my precious other half again...

I run again, and I can't fly for real but I fly as much as I can, because I know it's harder to be tracked through the air than on the ground. Berk is behind me again, I'm relieved. My wings hurt so much and it's hard to run, but I run anyway, I run until I feel like I'm asleep running, then I open my eyes and realize I'm on the ground so I try to stand up and run again, and I can't run but I can walk, so I walk and walk until I can't stay on my feet anymore and I fall again.

When I wake up, my stomach feels hungry but I don't want to be hungry, so I don't eat. My whole body hurts. I look at my hands that can hurt and kill my Hiccup, strong horrible hands that can shoot Him or choke Him or beat Him or tear Him. If...If I can destroy these rotten hands, then...then they can't hurt Him anymore, then...maybe I can go back to my Hiccup and love Him and He will be safe, and I won't feel this pain and loneliness anymore...

I curl my fingers around my other hand. My palm gets hot as I draw my fire, and I shoot-

It hurts it hurts it _hurts_, tears are pouring down my face I can't think, I, it _hurts_, help me, I...

When I wake up it hurts _so bad_, this is what it feels like to humans when they burn. I can't move my arm, the one with no hand; even trying to move it a tiny bit makes tears come from my eyes again. I can't breathe. I feel like I'm dying but I still have one hand left, I have to get rid of it but I can't shoot it now...

I put my wrist in my mouth and I bite. It hurts but I have to do it, when this hand is gone too then I can die and this pain in my body and in my heart will finally be gone...

_To be continued..._


	9. Trust, chapter 4

_**His Soul Reflects My Own: Trust**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 4 (rough draft)**

"...I'll just tell him."

Astrid had been true to her word and had not mentioned it at all. It was Hiccup who had kept turning the subject back to Toothless as he mechanically worked his way through the meal. Astrid thought wryly that she probably shouldn't have bothered bringing him to their favorite restaurant - he probably wouldn't have noticed if they'd ended up at a fast food place instead.

"I'll just...I'll just _tell_ him, and we'll be able to work things out together. It'll be okay. It'll be okay..."

Astrid laid her hand over his, startling him into meeting her eyes again. "Of course everything will be okay," she said quietly. "You and Toothless have each other, and you have _me_. No matter what happens, we can get through it together."

"I love you," Hiccup murmured. He leaned across the table to kiss her, but it wasn't enough and he ended up tugging her into his lap instead, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head against hers, seeking comfort in her warmth and closeness. She held him without needing to say a word, wishing she could do more, reminding herself that his torments were not anything she could take an axe to, no matter how much her fingers itched to fight his demons away.

The restaurant manager had to clear his throat two or three times to get their attention. The couple slowly focused on him, Hiccup looking grim and Astrid looking like she was seconds away from punching the man in the face.

"I'm _very_ sorry, sir, but, um...there's a slight...situation...I'm wondering if you _might_ need to see to...my apologies..."

"I'm off the clock," Hiccup said in an emotionless voice.

"...Yes, but I don't think they care."

Hiccup frowned. "They?" He and Astrid finally noticed that the people sitting near the windows were staring out of them, chattering to each other in animated puzzlement. The few dragons in the restaurant seemed to be either staring fixedly at Hiccup, or attempting to approach him and putting up a fuss as their human companions tried to get them to sit still.

The new chief and his fiancée shared a look, then rose from the table and strode toward the front entrance. Then they just stood there and stared in astonishment.

What looked like at least one or two hundred dragons were clustered outside, most thickly near the restaurant, perched on its roof or in its parking lot or around its windows. Others were scattered over and around nearby buildings, thinning out farther away from the restaurant. Most of them were from Berk's original flock; only a few of the recent newcomers hovered at the outskirts.

Even as Hiccup stared, a little troop of Terrors rushed at him, one of them managing to swing itself up into his arms; a pair of Zippleback twins wrapped their arms around his shoulders and gave a deep sigh; Gronckles crowded close, reaching out anxiously to touch him; Nadders were indecisively snatching at his clothes; Nightmares were starting fights with the dragons closest to him and swiping at him and then swooping away again.

Hiccup felt like he was being buried and smothered in dragons. It was exactly like when he'd still been their queen, and his frightened flock had sought him out for reassurance during one crisis or another. _'But I'm not their queen anymore, why are they...?'_ He looked at the Terror who had its face buried in his chest and then, concluding that it was too upset to be of any use, addressed the Zippleback clutching him instead. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

"What are You?" the Zippleback asked anxiously, in unison.

"...I'm human," Hiccup said warily, unsure what the dragon meant.

The Zippleback gave a wail that sounded like a single sound even though it came from two throats, burst into two sets of tears, and buried both faces in the back of his shirt.

"Queen?" the closest Gronckle asked him anxiously. "Alpha? Consort? No, no, not-queen not-alpha more-than-consort, _what are You_...?!"

"All we have," a Nightmare snapped. "_Only_ thing we have, is wrong bad I hate it! Half an alpha is all we have, we will die!" Some of her fellow Nightmares shouted angrily and shot fire into the sky - Hiccup and Astrid hastily backed away even though they were already out of range. More dragons were wailing now in fear and despair, more of them desperately crowding close to Hiccup. A few protective Gronckles angrily spoke to the agitated Nightmares, and several fights broke out simultaneously.

"Where's Toothless?" Hiccup demanded of all the dragons within earshot. "Where's your alpha?"

They simply stared at him.

Hiccup looked at Astrid. "We've got to get home."

The crowd of dragons followed them the entire way, and Hiccup had to order them harshly to stay outside his house. "Toothless!" he shouted as he burst through the door.

There was a sound of hurried footsteps, and then his mother was rushing into the entrance hall to meet him. "Hiccup! Have you seen Cloudju-? Is something happening?!"

"Where's Toothless?!"

"Toothless?"

Just then, Cloudjumper pushed his way into the house, slowing down as he approached his human and diffidently reaching out to grasp both her hands. Hiccup was surprised that Cloudjumper had apparently been separated from his cherished partner. "I left You," the Stormcutter said in a low voice. "Forgive me. Was upset; wasn't...expecting it."

Valka hugged him, though she looked very worried as her eyes met Hiccup's.

"Is Toothless here?" Hiccup demanded.

"No, the house was empty when we got home-"

"What?!"

Hiccup instantly called up a tracer program to locate Toothless's chip, and was stunned to find no results. The map was completely blank - the Night Fury chip was giving off no signature at all. "But- That's impossible, I-?!" Toothless's chip should still be giving off a signal even if he was dead, even if it had been removed from his body, unless the chip itself had been immensely damaged. If the chip was fine, then either Toothless was in another world, or... "He...couldn't have turned it off, could he...? Why would he- _Why_ would he hide himself from me if-?!"

Astrid was urgently trying to get his attention. "Stormfly. Hiccup, we have to find Stormfly, they were together when-"

The Nadder's chip was working normally. Hiccup, Astrid, and Valka raced to where the signal was being emitted, followed by the other dragons and too panicked to wonder what in the world Astrid's dragon and the rest of her troop were doing wandering around in the woods outside Berk.

There were no humans with them. Stormfly and Hookfang were apparently trying to kill each other, as Meatlug tried to stop them and the twins wandered nearby, screaming and blowing up trees. As soon as Hiccup called out to them, all four dragons whirled and rushed to him as a unit.

Hookfang batted away the entire troop of Terrors and then clutched Hiccup close, squeezing him hard enough to hurt before suddenly thrusting him away and pouncing at a tree to set it on fire with both hands.

Stormfly burst into tears, threw her arms around Hiccup and hugged him less painfully, mumbling, "Half of my friend is safe half of my friend is I don't know why is this happening why bad troopmates must stay home and obey obey obey watch movie boring keep my friend Toothless safe it _hurts_," then whirled away and pulled Astrid's arms around herself, begging, "Comfort me comfort me comfort me, Astrid my dearest one."

Barf and Belch clung to Hiccup. Meatlug grasped both his hands and pleaded, "Hiccup queen-who-was, You will take care of us? You will bring Your Toothless our alpha we love back to us, everything will be all right?"

Hiccup felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack. "_Where is Toothless_?"

Meatlug gazed wordlessly at him, her expression full of pain.

"Where is he?! What's _happening_?!"

"When was the last time you saw him?" Astrid asked more usefully, hugging and caressing her sobbing dragon as she spoke.

No one was at Snotlout's house. Hiccup was about ready to declare a state of emergency for the entire city when Astrid thought to suggest tracking Fishlegs's chip. Luckily, Fishlegs wasn't hiding his signal at the moment; Hiccup and his very large entourage arrived just in time to rescue Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the Thorston twins from a pack of wild Changewings.

"I _would_ have sent those Changewings packing if you'd just given me a _few more minutes_-"

"Hiccup! I am _so glad_ you're here, Toothless ran off and the dragons took off after him and we tried to follow them but they're so _fast_ and we got lost..."

"Hey, Hiccup, did you know that-?"

Hiccup's expression was thunderous. "_Where is my dragon_?"

"...It's Snotlout's fault," the twins chorused, at the same time Snotlout dramatically pointed to Fishlegs and insisted, "It was _his_ idea."

"What?!" Fishlegs gasped. "It was _your_ idea! I swear, Hiccup, I was only curious, I had no idea what memory it was or else I wouldn't have even tried, I _swear_...!"

"WHY IS OUR FLOCK ACTING LIKE THEIR ALPHA IS DEAD?"

In the end, Snotlout and the others knew nothing useful, and it was far more important to organize a search rather than waste time flinging around blame and accusations. Hiccup managed to find a recent activity record of the tracker in his Night Fury's chip, and he immediately headed to the location where the tracker had last emitted a signal.

There was no one there.

"Toothless!" Hiccup shouted into the dark. "_Toothless_...!"

_To be continued..._


	10. Post-canon: Playground Insult

_**His Soul Reflects My Own**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic series by Raberba girl**

**Playground Insult (rough draft)**

Summary: strikeRaberba girl attempts to cheer up the people getting depressed by _Trust_./strike Toothless's young son doesn't like what the other dragon kids call him at school.

**A/N: If you haven't already, I HIGHLY suggest that you read my **_**Two Worlds, One Family**_** series before you read this drabble.**

Takes place years after _Trust_, ftr. Daydream and Stoick Jr. are both six; Freefall's seven.

o.o.o

Hiccup, barging into the house with Toothless trailing after him, was very relieved to see two of the children he'd been looking for. They were happily making a mess of the kitchen as they prepared after-school snacks for themselves. Clearly they were safe and sound, but Hiccup's relief never actually made it to his expression or tone. "What are you _doing_ here?!"

"Mama!" His adopted daughter immediately dropped the sardines and ice cream she'd been working with in order to flap across the kitchen and fling her arms around him. "Mama~ Welcome home~"

"I'm glad you're safe, Freefall," he murmured, scooping her into his arms so he could hug her back.

"Hi, Daddy!"

"Hi," Toothless said. He was waiting for her to get distracted enough to not notice him, at which point he intended to grab her snack.

Hiccup's expression had morphed back into a glare by the time he met his son's eyes.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Stoick protested at once.

"You're supposed to be at _school_!" Hiccup stormed.

"They canceled practice!" Stoick yelled back.

"I _know_, which is why you were supposed to _wait_ for us to come _pick you up_!"

"We're not BABIES! I can take care of myself!"

That was the point at which Freefall realized what her 'father' was up to. With a shriek of indignation, she leaped back out of Hiccup's arms and rushed at Toothless, who took off for the living room. "Daddy that's mine GIVE IT BACK!"

"Can't eat it unless you catch it and SHARE!"

"SHARING IS FOR HUMANS!"

"_You're_ human!"

"Not when you're stealing my food, _bad_ Daddy!" The Night Furies' shouts went from Norse to dream language and then to playful growls as they fought.

The two actual humans had barely even noticed the commotion. "Between the five of you, you kids have gotten kidnapped at least three times by now! I'd say I've earned the right to be _concerned_ about you guys wandering around on your own!"

"The time Halla got captured on purpose to rescue Pinecone doesn't count!"

"That still leaves two! MY KIDS have been kidnapped _twice_, and I am NOT OKAY with that, Stoick! Neither is your mother!"

The mention of his favored parent finally made Stoick squirm, but then he raised his chin and continued to hold his ground. "That was back when we were little kids, anyway."

"You're _still_ little! You're SIX, Stoick!"

Freefall came bounding back into the kitchen, with Toothless ambling in behind her. Both dragons were licking ice cream off their fingers in satisfaction.

"Whatever! We're _fine_, nothing happened, we just came home from school!"

"Yeah, _this time_. So what about _next time_, or the time after that, how long do you think your luck's gonna-?"

"HEY MAMA GUESS WHAT, WE LEARNED ABOUT RAIN FORESTS TODAY," Freefall announced at the top of her voice, effectively ending the argument as Hiccup, Stoick, and Toothless all clapped their hands over their ears.

"Ugh...th-that's nice, Freefall."

"Look, look at my picture that I drew~!"

After he had admired it to her satisfaction, Hiccup looked up and finally remembered that one child was still unaccounted for. "Hey, where's Daydream?" The Night Fury boy was much more reserved than the other children in the household, he'd probably either finished eating his snack already, or had-

"Crying in the closet. My picture is the best most beautiful picture ever, right, Mama?"

"Why is he crying in the closet?! Why didn't you tell me sooner?! You guys left him alone all this time?"

"I _wanted_ to stay with him! But he told me I'm a horrible comforter and I have to go away," Freefall pouted.

"Oh man..."

As Hiccup and Toothless made their way upstairs, Freefall grinned slyly and ducked her head straight toward Stoick's plate, biting off a chunk of honey-drizzled Pop-Tarts with her teeth.

"HEY! That's _my_ food, keep your paws off!"

"I'm your sister, I can eat whatever of your food I want!"

Toothless had his hands over his ears again, even though they were halfway up the stairs and the children's voices were getting marginally fainter. "Babies are too _loud_," he complained.

"_Mine_ are loud," Hiccup pointed out, both apologetic and amused. "_Yours_ is more well-behaved than the rest of them put together..."

Once they figured out which closet Daydream was hiding in, Hiccup knelt down to the young Night Fury's level, and Toothless peered in over his head. "Hey, Daydream," Hiccup said gently. "Rough day?"

The little boy lifted his forehead from his knees and regarded Hiccup silently. He wasn't crying, but there were traces of earlier tears on his face.

"...Can we come in?" Hiccup asked.

For a long moment, there was no reply, then Daydream finally scooted to the side, leaving juuuust enough room for Hiccup to crawl in next to him. Hiccup pulled the boy into his arms, and Toothless snuggled against his son's other side, more out of instinct than sympathy. Daydream continued to sit silently, neither seeking out their comfort nor resisting it.

"What's up, Daydream?" Hiccup asked gently.

"..."

"Did something happen at school?"

The boy gave him a strange look, and finally spoke. "Things always happen at school."

"Bad things, not any things," Toothless translated in a bored tone. "Hiccup is worried because you are upset."

"Oh," Hiccup realized. "Yeah. I meant, did something bad happen at school to make you upset?"

Daydream lowered his head. "...I don't like them. I don't like them _at all_."

"Who's 'them'? What'd they do?"

Daydream slowly lifted a hand and curled his fingers into Hiccup's shirt. "They said I- They said I'm _human_!" he finally burst out, and fresh tears began to slide down his cheeks.

It took a second for Hiccup to figure out that this had apparently been intended as an insult, and he had to resist the impulse to roll his eyes.

The boy's clutching fingers tightened into a fist as he glared at Toothless. "It's _your_ fault, Dad! You made yourself half of a human, so now they think your offspring are human fake dragons, too!"

"I think I'm out of my depth here," Hiccup muttered.

"I'm _all_ dragon and half-human. _You_ are all dragon. Duh," Toothless told his son matter-of-factly. "If they say different, they are stupid."

Hiccup wondered whether it was a bad thing that Toothless seemed to be missing the point, or a good thing that he was so confident in his self-identity that any bullying attempts would just bounce off unheeded.

"Daydream," Hiccup said, "it doesn't matter whether you're dragon or human. You're a _person_, and we love you either way. They shouldn't have made you feel bad, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with you."

"...You love me?"

"Of course we-! Wh- Did you think we _didn't_?!"

"Why?"

It was a genuine question, which floored Hiccup. "Because...because you're _family_, Daydream! You're my- I mean, I'm not sure what _exactly_ you are, my nephew or half-son or something, whatever; but it doesn't matter! You are _definitely_ part of this family, of _course_ we love you!" _'Trust me, if I can love Stoick, I can definitely love you...'_ he couldn't help thinking.

The little Night Fury was simply looking at him with an expression of flat incomprehension.

"Hiccup loves you because He's human," Toothless explained more helpfully. "Humans give away pieces of their heart to _many_, not just one or two. That's why Hiccup loves me most and Astrid most and Mom most and Freefall and Lily and Halla and Stoick and _too very many_ people who _aren't me_. He loves all of us and you, too. Because He's human."

Daydream silently realized that his tormentors _were_ stupid, because there was apparently no shame in being human after all. He was satisfied. "I'm hungry," he announced. He climbed out of Hiccup's arms and headed for the kitchen.

Hiccup stared after him. "Uh...glad you're feeling better? ...I guess?" He glanced over at his partner and grinned helplessly. "Toothless, your kid is really cute, but I don't get him at all."

"I'm hungry, too," Toothless said dismissively.

"In any case, looks like the whole bullying thing has reared its ugly head again, _fantastic_..." Hiccup sighed as he got to his feet, hoping that his mother or even his little sister might have better ideas for how to combat the newest permutation of the problem, which, over the years, had seemed to plague the school in a wave pattern. "I'm not exactly an expert in this subject..."

In the kitchen, Freefall ran to glomp the other young Night Fury. "Daydream~! What were you crying about?"

"I'll beat them up for you if you want," Stoick offered nonchalantly. Hiccup, as he entered the room, pretended that he hadn't heard.

"No," Daydream said politely, "it's okay. I didn't like it before, but now it's okay."

"Them?! What'd they say?" Freefall demanded.

"They said I'm human."

Freefall gasped in delight. "ME TOO! They said _I'm_ human, too~!"

"I take it you didn't find that insulting?" Hiccup said wryly, patting her head as he passed by.

"You and me can be humans together~!" Freefall sang.

Daydream stood passively as she swung both of his hands in her own. "I'm a dragon," he asserted. "All dragon, not human at all."

"Freefall, _you're_ a dragon, too," Hiccup pointed out. "Sometimes I worry about you..."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Ftr, Empress was out doing dragon things, and the rest of the household was watching Halla perform in some sort of competition. Hiccup & Toothless are going back to work as soon as the kids are settled and there's someone around to make sure they don't get into trouble.

I don't know yet how I'm going to handle dragon aging and offspring in this universe. Stormfly might or might not have a kid, too, but I'm not sure yet. (Her mate lives with his human partner rather than in the Stoickson household.)

Again, I hope you read _Two Worlds, One Family_ already, since most of my HTTYD FCs are introduced in that series. (Though Pinecone debuted in _He's Not Dangerous_. But I'm sure he'll show up in TWOF eventually.) There's also a page listing my FCs on my Web site, though I need to update it again.

Freefall is a pure-blooded Night Fury, but, due to imprinting on Hiccup and being raised by humans, she acts so human that other dragons consider her to be at least half-human herself. *sweatdrop*

Dragons (the way I write them) approach relationships much differently than humans do; there's not nearly as much natural loyalty to biological family members, unless they're parents who have young offspring to raise. They also tend to concentrate their love onto fewer people than humans do. It's why dragons can get so possessive of their humans in this AU, because human culture is different and it stresses out the dragons to see their "territory" getting encroached on, and it's hard for them trying to learn how to "share."

I had a hard time trying to figure out sleeping and personal space arrangements and stuff in this universe, once the household size started swelling ._. I think I finally got it decently pinned down, but basically, no one really has their own room that they get all to themselves all the time. (Except Empress, who kind of took over the guesthouse as her own; but she's _Empress_. X''D Who, by the way, suddenly dumped her backstory on me the other day after work, so I might have to adjust her characterization a bit; I understand her _much_ better now.)

As far as story origins - honestly, I hadn't expected all the strong reactions I've been getting to _Trust_ ._. I guess because I'm the one writing it and therefore have always known the plot. But I've been feeling more and more bad with each chapter I post... And, although I've been trying to get a canon-based "Toothless & Hiccup as adorable six-year-olds~" one-shot typed as a palate-cleanser after _Trust_ is completed, I started thinking that maybe you guys need a break from the angst sooner than that. ^^; And this drabble conveniently wrote itself in my head at work last night, so...here, have some of my more typical little kid fluff? ^^;


	11. Trust, chapter 5

_**His Soul Reflects My Own: Trust**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 5 (rough draft)**

They searched all night, but even with an entire flock of dragons, no one could find anything, not even a definitive physical trail.

"How could he just _disappear_?! Did he _vanish_ into thin air, did he...?!" On that possibility, Hiccup tried searching through dreamscapes and other worlds with the help of an eager-to-please Gronckle (and a crowd of other dragons trailing alongside), but there wasn't a sign of the Night Fury in any of the worlds they looked through.

It was mid-morning by the time they emerged, and Astrid managed to persuade him to let his human troopmates sleep, but Hiccup refused both her and his mother's entreaties to rest himself. "Something's wrong...something is _so wrong_, he's out there somewhere and I can't just _sleep_ when he's probably in _trouble_...!"

Nothing else mattered anymore. Hiccup turned off his phone and had all incoming messages to his chip automatically quarantined, allowing alert notifications only for messages from the dragons. In those hours, he could have cared less about Berk. All that mattered was the emptiness and fear in his heart, the sick feeling that something was wrong wrong wrong and he was entirely helpless to fix it...

When Astrid's and Valka's messages, conveyed via their dragon partners, grew more and more concerned and then commanding, Hiccup shut them out, too, ordering Stormfly and Cloudjumper to relay nothing to him unless it concerned the search for Toothless. The day wore on hopelessly, but he kept dragging himself through it.

Until a shadow fell over him and a pair of thin, heavily scarred arms wrapped around his shoulders.

Hiccup tilted his head back and frowned up at the mottled-eyed, dark-skinned man who was human, yet held him the same way a dragon would. "Squirt?"

The Dream Master didn't say a word. Hiccup had time only for sudden realization and a gasp of outrage before everything gently went dark.

When he awakened, he found that he'd been asleep the entire night. "I'm angry enough to pick a fight with you, both of you!" he raged to Astrid and Valka as he climbed out of bed, ignoring Cloudjumper's very quiet growl. "I _would_ if it wouldn't waste time that I _should_ be spending looking for my dragon!" He turned on Squirt even as he was jerking on the fresh set of clothes Valka was handing to him. "And _you_! That was _not_ acceptable!"

Squirt stared at him wordlessly. Hiccup could only guess at what thoughts must be running through the Dream Master's head, but his guesses made him want to squirm with guilt, so he mentally shied away. "Don't you ever _touch_ me again without my permission. Either me _or_ my mind!"

"Please don't speak to him that way," Valka said quietly, putting an arm around Squirt in a gesture that looked effectively protective despite the way he towered over her. "We are the ones who asked him to give you rest, and he acted out of love for you."

"I don't care! I don't _care_! Toothless is the one who matters right now, not me!"

The Dream Master's voice was low, and despite the uncertainty and shame and humility in its tone, it still had a majestic quality that made even Hiccup in his fury slow down and truly pay attention to him. "That Night Fury who loves You would not like seeing You tear Yourself apart for His sake."

If anyone else had said it, Hiccup would have still been able to keep his composure, perhaps even to brush aside the remark. But said by a Dream Master, even a broken one, the words clutched at Hiccup's heart and overwhelmed him. He sank back slowly to sit on the edge of the bed, his shoulders bowed, his hands pressed to his face in a desperate attempt to muffle his tears.

Stormfly and the two Terrors who had refused to leave his side crept close to hold and comfort him, followed by the two human women, and Cloudjumper's wings shadowed over him protectively.

"Where is he...where _is_ he...?"

When Hiccup finally had control of himself again, he asked, now calm and sad, if they had still kept up the search while he'd been asleep.

"Of course! The dragons have been out the entire time, though we had to start organizing shifts for them."

Astrid took his hand. "I've been acting as interim chief for you, Hiccup, I hope you don't mind..."

"No, no, it's fine."

"Cloudjumper and Squirt and I have been taking care of the dragons as best we can," Valka said. "But it's you, their flock consort and former queen, whom they really want, and they want their true alpha even more."

At the look on his face, Astrid added wryly, "We _do_ care about finding him, too, you know."

"I...I know, I just..." Hiccup gently disengaged himself from the dragons and paced the room, tapping his knuckles against his head in frustration. "We searched _everywhere_, pretty much the entire half of the forest on that side of Berk...did anyone ever find anything inside the city itself?" He sighed at the looks on their faces. "Maybe we should search the _other_ side of the forest, too, it's not like it'd hurt..." He paused, then looked at the Dream Master. "Squirt?"

Squirt straightened a little, his expression both apprehensive and hopeful. Hiccup softened, going over to lay his hand very gently on the Dream Master's arm. "Hey, Squirt, you think you could do me a favor?"

"What is Your command?"

"...It's not a..._command_; it's a favor, okay? You can say no if you want to, I'm just _asking_. Requesting." He wouldn't have bothered saying it to other dragons, but with Squirt, he felt like he had to be constantly giving this-is-how-to-not-be-a-slave lessons.

"...What do You ask of me?"

"I can only think of three reasons why I can't track Toothless's chip - either the tracker's been turned off, the chip's been completely destroyed, or he's in another world. Looking for him in other worlds is like trying to find a needle in a haystack for me, but do _you_ have some way of tracking him that doesn't involve his chip?"

"Of course. You wish me to search for Him in other realms?"

"Yes, that would be _so_ helpf-" Startled, Hiccup threw out his arms to catch Squirt when he fell, then struggled to hold onto the taller man until Astrid and Cloudjumper helped him lay the sleeping Dream Master down on the bed. Hiccup stared. "I didn't mean _right that second_...!"

After he had had a quick meal forced on him, Hiccup flew out again together with Valka and Cloudjumper, while Astrid stayed behind to look after the human business of Berk that had slowed but of course not stopped despite the dragon crisis. After an hour or so, he received a message.

_"Squirt's awake. No luck."_

Hiccup called the Dream Master directly. It took three tries to get through.

_"..."_

"Hello?! Squirt, are you there?"

_"...Chieftain?"_ Squirt's voice sounded wary, as well as very muffled and distant.

"Are you holding the phone upside-down again?"

_"What?"_

"Turn the phone over, Squirt."

_"..."_

"The PHONE, Squirt! Talk into the _other_ tiny hole!"

_"...I'm talking?"_

Hiccup winced and lowered the volume on his own phone. "Yeah, that's right. Good. So you checked _every_ world, but he wasn't there?"

_"I looked in every realm He can get into. He is in none of them, so He must still be here in ours."_

"...So...what about the worlds he supposedly _can't_ get into? Have you tried those?"

_"He cannot get to them."_

"Yeah, but look _anyway_!"

_"...This is a command, or a 'request' that You ask of me?"_

Hiccup gritted his teeth. "Please. It is a huge favor that I would be _very_ grateful if you would please do, Squirt, because we are friends."

_"...I will search all the realms I can enter, because I love You and You are asking very sweetly, but I know that it is a waste of time."_

"Thank you, Squirt, I really appreciate it. And am also still not used to the 'I love you' thing, for the record." He hung up the phone and squeezed his eyes shut. "Toothless, where _are_ you...?"

Even though he knew Squirt was looking, Hiccup couldn't help escaping to other worlds himself from time to time, from the utter frustration of how fruitless the search in his own world was. In dreamscapes particularly, he could do so many things that he was unable to do in the real world that it made him feel better to test his extended limits. He also kept dreaming of the dreamscapes he'd seen, constant nightmares of searching for Toothless, so that sometimes sleep and wakefulness ran together and he wasn't sure whether he was visiting a dreamscape for real, or whether he was only dreaming about dreams.

The one time he saw his Night Fury up close and not in an obvious nightmare, he was 90% sure that he was awake. He distinctly remembered that it was 3:27 in the afternoon when he had asked Truespear, Stormfly's mate whom Hiccup happened to be paired with that day, to bring him into the 'Dragonworld' dreamscape.

In the five years (of Berk time) since the end of the Red Death's rule, the dreamscape no longer looked so hellish. The darkness now seemed more peaceful and awe-inspiring, and the great mountain, now that the volcano had gone dormant, was lit instead with lighter and varied colors from the world's remaining and new residents.

Rather than heading for the mountain, Hiccup instead directed the Nadder to go toward the empty Night Fury territory, which still stretched out vast and dark and silent despite some colors and hearth fires gradually intruding on the edges.

Hiccup had no hope of seeing the deserted villages and dwellings in the darkness, so he had to rely on the dragon's senses to find what he was looking for. Eventually they arrived at Toothless's childhood home, which was empty and silent as always, but had been rebuilt over years of visits to something that looked decently inviting to wanderers.

Apparently a wanderer _had_ stopped in for the night. A fire had been built, and there was movement close to it. Once Truespear landed, Hiccup approached the den cautiously, hand on his weapon - until he saw the silhouette of the creature on the other side of the firelight.

"_Toothless_!" Hiccup screamed. He flung himself at the black creature, a Night Fury in mythic form who immediately dropped the stick it had been drawing with, gave a high-pitched bark of pure joy, and rushed at Hiccup. The collision was rather painful, but Hiccup was too overjoyed to care as the dragon licked him until he was laughing too hard to breathe, and nuzzled him until he wondered if he was bruised, and crowed its delight to the dark skies in between shots of beautiful violet Night Fury fire.

"Toothless, Toothless, Toothless... Hey, bud, hey, Berk form! Okay? I wanna talk to you! Berk body, please!"

Toothless went very still, cocking his head at Hiccup as if he couldn't quite believe what he had heard. Then he dismissively shook his whole body and morphed upward and smaller into the humanoid form Hiccup was most familiar with. Near the fire, Truespear settled down happily with a chunk of meat.

"Toothless!"

"Hiccup my Hiccup I have Him here, _real_ Hiccup not dream Hiccup I love Him so much I'm sooooooo happy..."

"Toothless, where have you _been_?! We've been looking EVERYWHERE for you, did you-?!"

"This is a very very good wonderful dream," Toothless purred, hugging Hiccup tightly and nuzzling the side of his face.

"Dream?"

"Much more happy here than outside," Toothless sighed in contentment.

"Toothless, we have to get home. Things have been a _complete and total mess_, we really, really need you back-"

"No boring talk! Let's play!" Toothless sprang away and crouched, his eyes dancing, obviously wanting Hiccup to chase after him.

"Toothless, cut it out! Hey..." Hiccup looked at him. "Toothless...when you ran, it's because you saw...those recordings, ri-?"

Toothless was shaking his head hard. "No no no no no, no talk about _recordings_ no talk about memory or horrible things, I love my Hiccup we _play_ and are happy always."

Hiccup frowned and tried to move close, but Toothless giggled and dashed away. "Toothless! Toothless come _here_, the other dragons really need you, you're their _alpha_-!"

"No! No alpha, horrible things, I- I..." Toothless was suddenly still, staring off into the darkness, a distressed look on his face as he pressed his hands over his heart. "Flock...my precious flock that I love..."

"You have to come back for them, Toothless. They're going crazy without you."

Toothless turned his face back to Hiccup, his expression full of pain. "They are alone now. I will die, but they _must not die_. I'm sorry, forgive forgive forgive, please." He closed his eyes. "Cloudjumper is very good...maybe Squirt because he loves You, I am jealous of him but he loves You so he will be good...maybe Stormfly my dear friend, there is much love in her heart..." He opened his eyes again and smiled very sadly at Hiccup. "You choose. You are my heart, You will know, they will listen to You. You choose their new alpha who will love them most and protect them, take care of them so they won't die even though I was weak and I die."

Hiccup's mouth had gone dry. "What...you- _What_?! Toothless...!"

Tears were sliding down Toothless's face as he came back to Hiccup and held him close. "My flock, my precious flock, I was a terrible alpha to them, I ran far left them alone with no one to be their good new alpha and take care of protect them..."

"Toothless, you have to come _back_! We're right _here_, we'll just go back together _now_! I-" Hiccup, whose trembling fingers had been reaching behind the dragon's left ear, suddenly realized it like a kick in the gut - the chip was there, even a strange flat version of the flying sequence was there, and a muddle that was like a layman's painting of code, but...it wasn't a real computer chip. The Night Fury still had his red tail prosthetic, but the chip was fake, with no way to actually access it and nothing inside to respond except a faint whiff of distant joy from the flying sequence, as if it was created from memory rather than digital code. "Toothless...your chip...?!"

Toothless pulled back a little and gazed at him silently.

Hiccup swallowed. "You're a dream," he whispered. "You're just...dreaming. This is...you're-" He backed away.

"Hiccup," Toothless said softly, "my precious Hiccup, I love You most. You have all my love."

"Toothless! Quick, tell me where your body is! Your real body, the one back in our world! You _are_ still somewhere in our world, right?! Close to Berk, far away, _where_?! Where did you go?! Are you hurt?! We have to find you!"

Toothless looked down at his own hands, studying them for a while. "I am dying," he finally said. "I know I'm not dead yet, because this is not a realm for dead people. But this is the last time I will see You."

"No...!"

He looked back up at Hiccup and smiled sadly. "I love You," he said again.

"No, Toothless, _no_, please don't die on me!"

Toothless suddenly staggered. He winced and started to crouch down, then he gasped and gripped one of his hands hard in the other. "It hurts, it _hurts_...they are awake again, they think maybe I am finally dead, but I'm _not_, I'm not yet..." He winced.

"You're NOT dead! I WILL FIND YOU, but you _have_ to tell me where you are, Toothless! Are you in another world?! Are you in ours?!"

Gasping, Toothless clutched at his own hand even harder. "Hurts _so much_, please don't wake me up, please please let me stay here with my Hiccup I love, don't..." He disappeared.

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: I'm not sure yet whether Cloudjumper is supposed to have a chip or not, but for now, I'll assume he does.


	12. Trust, chapter 6

_**His Soul Reflects My Own: Trust**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 6 (rough draft)**

Author's Notes: **I'm putting the notes up here because it feels kind of callous to put them at the end of the chapter this time. *sweatdrop***

There are both dreamscapes and actual other worlds, though the humans tend to use the term "world" interchangeably for both. Anyone can get into a dreamscape whether awake or asleep (though humans need a dragon or Dream Master to take them), but they have to be awake in order to get to a real alternate world.

Dream Masters (Bewilderbeasts, etc.) are the only ones whose dream language is automatically translated to be understandable to anyone listening.

Google Translate did a _better_ job with Latin than it did with the other languages, but it still mangled about half the translations...

According to the official HTTYD Web site, Deadly Nadders (and whatever breed Skullcrusher is, I forgot what it's called) are a class of dragon who are exceptional trackers. Somehow they can apparently track their targets through _air_. ^^; Which is how Skullcrusher managed to find Hiccup at the Sanctuary, and apparently how Stormfly was able to follow Hiccup and Toothless to that random cliff they were goofing around on at the beginning of HTTYD2.

...I've discovered that I cannot write the Thorston twins. o.O Most characters pretty much write themselves, I just record what they do and say; but there are certain characters who give me _nothing_ when I try to write dialogue for them, and apparently the twins are characters like that for me. :/ I love Tuffnut, and I enjoy reading about the twins in other people's fics, but for some reason they're difficult for me, personally, to write.

o.o.o

Squirt spent several days either asleep in dreamscapes or gone to other worlds. Valka finally made Hiccup come with her and Cloudjumper into the fallen White King's dreamscape and call for Squirt until he finally returned.

Even in the dreamscape, in his gigantic, awe-inspiring mythic form, Squirt's mane of spikes was drooping, his thick hide looked dry and cracked, and his enormous eyes were slightly glazed.

"Squirt, dear one!" Valka called up to him from where she was perched on a moss-covered ledge. "Come home and rest, and eat. Your human body is suffering."

_**"Nondum Imperator (I have not yet found Alpha),"**_ Squirt said, even his mythic voice sounding weaker in their minds than it should.

Hiccup was alarmed at the Dream Master's condition, and somewhat guilty. "How...how many more worlds do you have left to search?"

_**"Nescio. (I do not know.)"**_

"...Could you give me, like...a rough estimate? Twenty more worlds, thirty? How many other worlds are there, anyway?"

_**"Nescio. (I do not know.)"**_

"What?"

_**"Non est eis numerus. (They cannot be counted.) Semper sunt plures. (Always, there are more of them.)"**_

"Wait, _what_?! Are you saying that - that there's an _infinite_ number of worlds to search?!"

_**"Etiam. (Yes.) Diutissime fiet ut. (It will take a very long time to search.) Per omnia saecula, usque dum moriar. (Forever, until I die.) Sed facere, quod Te amo. (But I will do it, because I love You.)"**_

Hiccup let out a cry of dismay and paced in a distressed little circle, uncomfortably shocked at the intensity of the Dream Master's devotion to him. Paired with the fact that Squirt had apparently been chasing down a dead end all this time, Hiccup profoundly regretted pressuring Squirt to accept such a mission. Hiccup rounded back on the Dream Master and shouted, "Never mind! Come back! I'm an IDIOT and I should have listened to you! Help us search in our world instead!"

_**"Gratias agimus tibi. (Thank you.) Quod est magnum bonum. (That's very good.) Sapiens sicut Tu. (You are a kind and wise master.) Dimitte me, dominus pro mérito dixerim. (Forgive me, I should have said 'chieftain' instead of 'master.')"**_

"Mom, he's scaring me. He's _scaring_ me."

Valka patted his shoulder soothingly. "If he _must_ have a master, better you than Drago, at least."

"Yeah, but _still_, it's creepy...!"

They returned to Berk and attended to the matter of getting Squirt fed - which was rather a daunting task, since he seemed to be ravenous, still hungry even after eating literally all the food in the house. Hiccup, restless to continue the search, left Valka to take Squirt grocery shopping and went out with Eret and Skullcrusher instead.

When he returned hours later, Squirt was asleep again (though simply resting this time), and when Hiccup went looking for Astrid in the guest room she'd been sharing with her dragon during these stressful days, he found that the two women were there but not resting.

"Wake up, Stormfly," Astrid said, gently shaking her Nadder's shoulder until Stormfly blinked her wet eyes open and focused on her partner.

"Astrid? My Astrid?" she asked despairingly.

"It was just a nightmare, sweetheart," Astrid murmured, hugging her. Hiccup went to nestle close to the dragon's other side, knowing that she needed the physical expression of comfort and reassurance.

"My dear friend that I love is still gone," Stormfly wept. "My alpha that I love is gone, and I cannot find Him. I search and search and search in my dreams, but He is not there, and I wake up and He is _here_ somewhere hiding but I cannot find Him in this body..."

Hiccup's hand, which had been stroking her arm soothingly, paused. "In...in this body?" He and Astrid shared a look.

"Stormfly," Astrid asked, "is there a different body you could use to find Toothless?"

Stormfly broke away from them both and began to pace in agitation, grimacing as she twisted her fingers into her own hair. "Strong, my strong dream body, I can _smell_ Him, I _know_ where He went I can follow follow follow until I find Him, but then I wake up and I am in this small weak body again and _I can't smell anything_..."

Hiccup rose and went to carefully take her hands. "Stormfly? Is it your mythic body you're talking about?"

"Mythic...that is the human name for my most beautiful dream body..."

Hiccup had to remember to keep breathing. "Stormfly, if we could somehow get you into your mythic body here in _this_ world, could you track down Toothless? Could you find him?"

"Follow the trail to my dear friend alpha Toothless that I love, and bring Him home safe..."

Hiccup couldn't tolerate waiting for Squirt to wake up, but somehow he did, and then he was practically pouncing on the Dream Master before Squirt had finished yawning. "Squirt! Hey, Squirt, hey, I know I keep asking a lot from you, but there's another favor I'd _really_ like you to do for me, please, if you're up for it..."

"...If I obey, may I please eat afterward?"

"Eat now! Here, I'll get you some food _right now_, just please listen!"

Once Squirt had started contentedly working his way through a whole plate of breakfast tacos, Hiccup explained, "We think that maybe Stormfly can track down Toothless if she's in a different body. Is there...is there any way that you could keep Stormfly in her mythic dragon body _here_? In this world? The way you did when you attacked Berk?"

Squirt swallowed the last bite of his current taco, and reached for another one. "Of course."

"Really?!"

"Yes. I am a Dream Master, and she is a dream creature. Of course."

Stormfly wasn't the only dragon who ended up flying out on the new search in her mythic form. Many of the others pestered Squirt to give shape to their mythic bodies as well, once they realized what he was doing. Not that he minded; he assured Hiccup that it was just as easy for him to alter the bodies of many dream creatures as it was to do just one.

Thus, Hiccup's entourage was even more impressive than usual, a flock of giant fire-breathing winged reptiles soaring over the countryside, with Hiccup and Astrid riding Stormfly at their head. The drawback would have been that Stormfly could not communicate with them any more than an animal could, except that Squirt, riding with Eret on Skullcrusher nearby, was willing to translate mind-to-mind.

_**"Let them fly,"**_ he told the assorted other humans who had tagged along and were apparently trying to guide the dragons they were riding. _**"They're the ones who know where they're going, not you."**_

All of the Deadly Nadders, Skullcrusher, and one or two of the other dragon breeds were soon clustered together and flying faster than the rest of the flock, like bloodhounds hot on a scent. Hiccup didn't know what to think of the fact that they really were headed in the opposite direction of Toothless's last known location, but he told himself to trust the dragons.

Finally they descended, and almost immediately swarmed around the mouth of a low cave, chirring and squawking in excitement and distress and uncertainty.

Hiccup was off of Stormfly's back and striding toward the cave in less than two seconds, and he glared fiercely when Eret grasped his arm to hold him back.

"Look at the dragons," the former trapper pointed out. "If _they're_ hesitating to go in, I'd say _you'd_ definitely better watch your step."

"Toothless is in there," Hiccup said in a Don't Argue With Me tone. Yet when he once more tried to approach, he was hindered again, this time by a mythic Gronckle anxiously blocking his way. "Meatlug, _move_!"

"It's not safe," Squirt explained.

"I don't care!"

"This is someone's nest. She is a fierce mother who will protect her offspring from all who invade her territory, no matter how much they outnumber her. Will You ask Your flock to overpower her at the cost of their own blood?"

He was asking it as a genuine question. "No," Hiccup said, ashamed despite himself. "Of course not." His heart was almost physically hurting. "But then what am I supposed to-?!"

The dragons had been conferring together, and now Hookfang let out a roar and darted into the cave. Several other Monstrous Nightmares, some in mythic form and some still in Berk form, took up stances around the cave mouth, and many of the other dragons maneuvered to shield their humans, particularly Hiccup.

"Hold on a second!" Snotlout protested, "So it's _my_ dragon who has to-?!"

Hookfang's distant, echoing bellow interrupted him, followed by an eldritch screeching sound. The Nightmares lying in wait all burst into flames, shifting from foot to foot in anticipation. Snotlout and Hiccup both started trying to struggle past the dragons fencing them in, but before they could break through, Hookfang came darting back out again so fast that he was a blur. The waiting Nightmares pounced on his pursuer, a creature almost as big as they were with strong jaws and wild eyes and a shrieking voice that made the humans' flesh creep.

There was a second of fierce fighting and flashes of blood, with no way to tell if it came from the dragons or the enraged mother or both.

"Stop!" Hiccup shouted, not even sure which of them he was yelling at. "_Stop_!"

The Dream Master strode forward with his hands outstretched, not even flinching when his already scarred flesh was freshly slashed open.

"Squirt!"

The Nightmares all staggered away, looking dazed. The raging creature fell unconscious into Squirt's arms. "Sleep," Squirt murmured as he lowered her gently to the ground. "We will not kill you, because my chieftain hates violence and there is love in your heart."

Stormfly and Meatlug had already reverted to their Berk bodies and darted into the cave, with Hiccup hot on their heels and several other dragons calling anxiously after them. Even after activating a light to help him navigate the pitch dark tunnel, Hiccup still had trouble with the uneven, debris-strewn ground, and was grateful when Meatlug came back to help him.

The tunnel eventually opened into the core of the nest, a large but warm enclosure filled with dry grass and leaves. Awkward baby creatures stumbled around, snuffling and squeaking, sniffing in confusion at the newcomers. Sprawled in their midst was a battered, unmoving creature that had perhaps been dragged in to feed the infants once it was properly dead; one of the babies was mouthing at its foot as if trying and failing to eat it. Stormfly was on her knees, embracing her friend and crooning to him as she gently stroked her cheek against his bruised, cut, dirt-smeared face.

"_Toothless_!" Hiccup threw himself down, almost shoving Stormfly aside in order to reach for his dragon - then froze. He felt like he was going to throw up as he stared at his best friend's arms, one of which ended as a burned and filthy stump, the other with the hand still attached but covered with dried blood, the damaged ends of both limbs buzzing with flies. He choked out his friend's name again, sick and shaking and paralyzed with horror.

Astrid caught up and laid her hands on his shoulders in concern, as Eret knelt on the Night Fury's other side and carefully felt for a pulse. "He's still alive," Eret murmured. "Barely..."

Hiccup tried to reach for his unconscious dragon, but it was hard to make his hand obey him, and his fingers flinched away the second they brushed against Toothless's skin. He couldn't seem to finish a thought, his mind kept jerking from one to another until suddenly settling on one. Hiccup grasped his weapon.

Astrid caught his arm before he could draw it. Her eyes followed his to the little cubs, one of which was poking curiously at his knee with its nose. "You will regret it," she said quietly. "And they don't breathe fire. They don't have teeth yet. It wasn't them. I don't think it was their mother, either."

"T...Toothless..." He wanted to sob or scream, but he couldn't draw enough breath to do either. How could the other half of his heart be _right here_ yet somehow so sickeningly out of reach...?!

There was no room for anyone else in the nest, but as soon as Meatlug, cradling her alpha in her strong arms with utmost tenderness, had carried him out into the light, they were immediately surrounded. Barf and Belch pressed the closest as they laid their hands softly over their fallen leader's heart. "Found You," one twin murmured. "Come find us," the other whispered. "We call to You, please listen."

"Come back to us," Hookfang said, staring intently at Toothless's face. "Come _back_..."

_To be continued..._


	13. Trust, chapter 7

_**His Soul Reflects My Own: Trust**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 7 (rough draft)**

Even after being placed in the hospital's care, Toothless still looked horribly fragile and damaged, and had yet to regain consciousness. Terrible Terrors constantly nested in and around his bed; at least one of his dragon troopmates was always at his side; most of the rest of Berk's dragons kept vigil around the hospital, to the inconvenience of any humans trying go about their business nearby. Hiccup was torn between desperately fixating on his partner's every breath and trying to escape the pain by burying himself in work.

When Berk's resident Dream Master casually asked if Hiccup would like him to restore the Night Fury to full physical health, Hiccup was stunned.

"What-? You can _do_ that?! You can- Even his tail?! His _flight_?! Can you make Toothless fly again?!"

"I have no power over the chip...it is a real thing, from this world. But Your Toothless is a dream creature, so the rest of His body - yes, of course. I can remake it as You like." Squirt frowned and added in a slightly grudging tone, "Or as _He_ likes."

"Fix him! Why didn't you mention this sooner?! _Fix_ him!"

It was Astrid who laid a hand on Hiccup's arm and held out her other toward Squirt to stop him. "Hiccup."

"What?" her fiancé snapped.

Astrid's tone remained calm, though she squeezed his arm in warning. "Don't you think you ought to ask _Toothless_ before you go changing his body?"

"What?" Hiccup repeated irritably. "He's _hurt_. Squirt can _heal_ him."

Astrid gripped his face so that he was forced to actually meet her eyes. "You already altered your dragon once without his permission. Are you making this a regular thing now?"

Hiccup's heart was pounding with a mix of anger and shame. He had to work hard to keep his eyes and voice free from tears. "He...of course he'd say yes if he was awake...!"

"Then give him a chance to wake up and _say_ it. Unless you really are as okay with making his decisions for him as _he_ supposedly is."

Hiccup stormed out and seized upon the biggest, most frustrating chief-of-Berk problem he could find, since all the trouble of solving it was still easier than having to keep standing by and be completely powerless to help his other half.

o.o.o.o.o

Toothless awakened at last. It was after midnight, and very quiet. The Terror nestled at his side did not even stir, and Stormfly did not make a sound as she leaned forward and touched her forehead to his.

The two dragons silently comforted and reassured each other for several long moments, without words or even thoughts. Then Stormfly glanced at her alpha's sleeping consort, pressed a brief kiss to Toothless's cheek, gently gathered the Terror into her arms, and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Hiccup, who had fallen asleep in a chair drawn close to the bed, barely stirred. The dragon lethargically struggled to sit up, then simply looked at his other half for a long time.

Hiccup finally opened his eyes. Disoriented, he gazed at Toothless for several seconds before finally processing what he was seeing. His eyes widened as he straightened up.

Toothless's voice was very soft. "My Hiccup that I love..."

Hiccup put his arms around his dragon, hugging him very tightly for a long time. Toothless, careful to keep his remaining hand angled away from his human, closed his eyes and sat still, slowly drawing strength from the embrace.

Hiccup let go at last, near tears. It took more than one try before he was able to speak. "What do I say to you?" was all he was able to manage aloud. "What do I say...?"

Toothless simply looked at him. For the first time in a long time, Hiccup was unable to read his friend's expression...perhaps because what Toothless felt was just as much of a jumbled flood as what Hiccup was struggling with now.

"Comfort me," Hiccup finally whispered. Toothless leaned into him, silently offering reassurance through touch and closeness. He lifted his 'safe' arm, which had been so numbed by medication that he could feel nothing even when he put it around Hiccup to embrace him. Even as it brought comfort, the reminder of what had been lost seemed to sharpen Hiccup's grief, and he couldn't hold the tears back anymore. It was a long time before he was able to regain enough composure to speak again.

"It hurts. It _hurts_. You know how you say we are two halves of one heart? That's why when you get hurt, _I'm hurt_, too, and losing you like that...seeing you like this...you might as w-well be shooting at me again, let's just go back to that day when I had to watch you try to kill me, let's just _keep doing this_ until both of us are dead, then maybe it- maybe then this _pain_ will finally stop!"

Tears had started falling from the dragon's eyes as well. "...Hurt my Hiccup when I am close to Him...hurt my Hiccup when I leave Him... What do I do? Can't keep my most precious thing safe, can never never make Him happy and love me again...it hurts..."

Which set off Hiccup all over again. "_Why_ is this-?! _Why_?!" He clutched Toothless as he cried, frustrated at his own tears and his inability to articulate what he knew desperately needed to be said. Something between them was so badly broken, he had to find the right words and figure out what to do to _fix it_, but when he kept breaking down like this, when he couldn't control his own feelings or figure out _what_ the real issue was so he could deal with it and _get rid of it_... Though Toothless seemed content to merely sit here in his arms, eyes closed, breathing deep, as if Hiccup's embrace and the sound of his heartbeat was all he needed.

Hiccup finally pulled back, raking a hand through his hair in agitation. "My father's dead."

The pain in Toothless's eyes was a perfect mirror of what Hiccup felt.

"You were...you were coming for _me_, I thought that was the worst moment of my life when I saw the emptiness in your eyes and realized you couldn't hear me...but then he..." Hiccup drew a shaky breath. "My biggest screw-up yet, and of course Dad cleaned up after me, just like always. And it's my fault he'll never be able to fix my mistakes again." Hiccup angrily scrubbed the new tears from his face, blinked and tried to refocus away from past wounds that had apparently never truly healed.

"It wasn't your fault, I _know_ it wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have chased you off, I am so, so sorry. It just...it just hurts. I can't...get those images out of my head, I wish I could erase _my_ memories, that's..." He gripped Toothless's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "I should _never_ have touched your memories, Toothless. It was _my_ memories I wanted to get rid of, not yours. But you're not- You're my- You're my other half, but I shouldn't use you as if you're me and not yourself. I can't...live my life through you, or whatever I thought I was doing when I... What I did to you was _wrong_. It doesn't matter whether you mind or not, I did something _terrible_ to you, Toothless, so...please...say you forgive me."

The stare Toothless was giving him now was incredulous. "I hurt my Hiccup...hurt my most precious thing, horrible stupid dragon can't take care of what I love, but Hiccup asks me to forgive, Hiccup lets me hurt Him but says it's His fault not mine, what do I do, Hiccup says-"

"Stop it! _Stop_ it, I KNOW you'd do anything for me! I _know_ you'd- you'd die before you let me get hurt, so how could you possibly think anything is your fault?! _You're_ not the one who thought he knew better than his own chief, _you're_ not the one who thought he could talk sense into a murderous raving madman, _you're_ not the-!"

Toothless had instinctively started to lift his medication-numbed hand, but then he slammed it back down, clutching the sheets as if desperate to keep it anchored as far away from Hiccup as possible. Angry tears were spilling down his cheeks again. "Hurts me! Other half of my heart, You hate Yourself, You hate and hurt _me, too_! It _hurts_! It hurts so much and You never tell me what I must do to make it stop! Tell me, tell me what You want and I will give, I will give You _everything_, anything, please tell me!"

For a second, Hiccup was frozen. Then he seemed to shrink into himself, choking out bitterly, "I hurt you no matter what I do, don't I...hurt my Toothless when I hide from him, hurt my Toothless when I'm angry at myself...what do I _do_...?"

"Both of us lost," Toothless sobbed. "Lost and alone and afraid and hurting, why are we lost when we are _here_? I don't understand, it hurts, is it because You are human and I'm not? We are too different, we can't be together..."

"Shut up," Hiccup whispered. He put his arms around his dragon again and hugged him tightly. "I won't let that be true. You are the best thing that ever happened to me, we _belong_ together. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Toothless."

"Sorry," Toothless whimpered. "Sorry, sorry, sorry. So much, as much as You want."

They were quiet for a long time. Hiccup felt like he'd used up all his tears, like there were no more left even if he needed them. "Toothless," he finally said, his voice hollow. "Don't ever leave me like that again."

Toothless stared at him, then dragged his eyes down to his hand. He uncurled his numb fingers and raised his hand to look at it. It was heavily bandaged, particularly around the wrist, and he still kept it carefully angled away. "Get rid of this," he said in a low voice. "This rotten thing. Take it off of me, throw it away. Then I can stay close to You."

Hiccup took far too long to figure out what this meant, because he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Your- Your _hand_...?!"

Toothless set it back down on the sheets.

"Toothless-" Hiccup instinctively started to grasp his hand.

Toothless's eyes widened in sudden panic, and he jerked it out of reach. "No!"

Hiccup felt like he was going to be sick again. "You- You did that to - to _yourself_?! Your hands, Toothless, _you_ did that...?!"

"Fire," Toothless whispered. "Shoot and kill my Hiccup. Shoot and kill Dad. _Rotten_. I don't want them, I don't want them, I _don't want_ to hurt and kill these people I love and so precious to me, I don't-"

Hiccup couldn't get hold of it when Toothless was keeping it out of reach. Sudden emotion swept over him. He flung himself at Toothless's arm and seized it with both hands. Ordinarily, he was no match for the Night Fury - but with Toothless in this weakened state and Hiccup surging with unaccustomed strength, especially when he leaned so close that the dragon had no room to struggle...

Hiccup had his good knee braced against the edge of the bed, his hands pressing Toothless's palm flat against his own heart. "No," Toothless begged, straining to jerk his hand free but unable to pull away more than the tips of his fingers. "No, no, no...!"

"It's okay," Hiccup told him. Toothless whimpered. "I know that being with you can be dangerous. It's okay."

"Not okay! Hurt You...!"

"Toothless, I'd _so much_ rather risk that, every single minute we're together, than lose you again. I _don't want_ to be safe if it means you couldn't stay with me. Even if you ever did hurt me, even if you shot me, burned me...it's _okay_. I trust you. You are my...my other half, and..." He smiled a little. "...and I so very much love you. I _know_ you'd never hurt me on purpose."

"Not on purpose," Toothless choked out through his tears, "Never. I hurt my Hiccup when I so very much don't want to. I will lose my Hiccup. _My fault_, my Hiccup lost forever."

"I wouldn't blame you," Hiccup said softly. "_If_ that ever happened, Toothless...please keep being strong. Don't go crazy and abandon them again. They need you. Even if you lose me, _they still need you_. Please, please don't tear yourself apart for my sake, don't hurt all those people for my sake."

Toothless finally went still, his hand relaxing in Hiccup's grip. He touched his forehead to Hiccup's and closed his eyes. "Lose You...my precious other half that I love most..."

"We have the same heart," Hiccup murmured, "but we are not the same person. If I die, I don't want you to die, too. There are other people we care about, who need us. If you ever lose me, I _still want you to be happy_...my Toothless that I love."

"..."

"Promise me you'll live for yourself, too, and for the others. Not just for me."

"...Promise to be happy without You." Toothless tugged his hand free from his friend's loosened hold and affectionately brushed his fingers against Hiccup's hair. "...But very so much happier _with_ You."

Hiccup smiled. "Same here."

_To be concluded..._

Author's Notes: I had to completely re-write almost half of this chapter (and I'm _still_ very unhappy with it, ugh). I was very dissatisfied with the original draft, and finally realized that it was because I was trying to control the characters too much and they were therefore getting inexcusably OOC. Thank you to Medli45 for giving me a useful line to work with in the revised dialogue!

Btw, the dragons tend to get less verbally fluent when they're upset.

**Also, concrit very much needed. I took out this paragraph when I was quick-editing; it's Hiccup's jumbled flood of thoughts when Toothless first wakes up and Hiccup can't figure out what to say to him. Do you think I should find a place to work any of that back into the chapter, or is it all unnecessary? Please let me know, I really need a more objective opinion on this!**  
_How could you do that to me?! You hate me for what I did to you. You couldn't stand that I was angry at you. I shouldn't have tried to hide things from you, I should have told you from the beginning; forgive me, forgive me. Were you _trying_ to get yourself killed? Were you trying to kill me by killing yourself? Do you have _any_ idea what the past week has been like for me? Why would you run from me? Why?_ Too many things he was bursting with all at once.

...I can see where people could potentially draw parallels between something stated in this chapter and certain very controversial real life issues. I did NOT write that part with the intention of paralleling my views on any of those issues one way or the other; it was meant to be limited to the specific situation and circumstances of this particular story.


	14. Trust, chapter 8 (final)

_**His Soul Reflects My Own: Trust**_**, a DreamWorks' **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_** fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 8 (rough draft)**

I don't _want_ a good and perfect Dream Master body! I want my good real body that _I_ made, me and Hiccup together. I want Him to keep the tail fin that He made, I want to keep the scars on my wings when He caught me out of the sky away from _Her_ that I so very much hated, I want to keep all of these, all of it! Stupid Hiccup!

Except only my hand that I threw away because I was stupid and scared... I let Squirt give it back. Because he and Hiccup say I will need it, and I know they're right; and because I was bad to run away from my flock and my Hiccup, I am ashamed. That hurt can be erased, gone, so I can have a 'second chance' and do better, be a good proud alpha and not hurt the people I love and I'm supposed to take care of.

But the old good scars are _mine_, I will keep them!

Hiccup is mad until Astrid makes Him feel better. "At least he's standing up for himself instead of caving to whatever you want, right?"

"...Aaaarrrgghhh!"

"You are upset?" I ask Him. I know He is, but sometimes He lies, so I get confused and I want to ask.

He hugs me. "I'm frustrated! I'm sad, and I'm mad at myself!" He sighs. "But I love you and I'm proud of you, okay? This is your choice, not mine."

Hiccup loves me and is proud of me. That makes me very happy.

xXxXxXx

No no no no _no_, I thought I would never have to feel this again _ever_, but I can't move my body no matter how hard I try; I hate it hate it HATE IT, horrible rotten human things called _disruptors_, in my body like poison, inside my head I am screaming and screaming my rage and fear, but no one can hear me and no one cares and there is no one to save me except Hiccup, but He is not here and He betrayed me, He took my love for Him and used it to hurt me, He gave me to the rest of His human monsters who hate me so much...!

Even if I can move my body, I can't get out of this cage they locked me in. They took away all my strength and made me helpless, but still they are afraid of me and they locked me down.

They are gone now. I'm glad those horrible monsters all left, but they didn't set me free and I'm alone now, they left me trapped here in their stupid human ship that is burning now. _She_ is out there slaughtering them and She will kill me next, She knows I am here, She is the one who set this stupid human ship on fire, and when this ship dies, I will die too.

I hope I die with the ship, because if She can get me out before it dies, She will not kill me quick. She will keep me alive and make me suffer for a long time, because I betrayed Her and tried to escape Her flock and She will make sure I know how horribly angry She has been all this time when I was with Hiccup instead of Her, and then finally She will eat me. It will be worse than dying like this. I hope the ship kills me before She can reach me.

I want my small sweet wonderful kind Half Of Me so very much, but He is so weak and far away, and He betrayed me; He let the monsters take me because He wants me to die. But I still love Him, because...He is half of me, and I can't hate Him even though I want to. He has broken my heart, but it doesn't matter because at least He is safe. _'Stay safe in Your human world and never come here where She can find You and catch You and kill You.'_

Not alone?! A human monster came back, the biggest most horrible strongest one, the queen. Is he here to kill me?! I want so much to be _free_ so I can fight, but I can't move at all and I can't even shout to challenge him, it's not _fair_!

"One Who Has No Teeth." He takes hold of the cage with his big human hands and he pulls it apart, then he kneels down to open the chip and- and-

He's not killing me?! He is...giving the numbers back , he is...

He is cleaning the _disruptor_ from the chip, I can move again. But I won't yet, I will stay very very very very still until he is finished and I can move my whole body and then I can pounce and _kill him_...

100%. My body belongs all to me again. Free, I am _free_. I scream in rage and I leap up and I seize him with my strong hands and I shoot my fire into him, over and over until I have no more fire in my hands.

He looks at me. All his chest is black and burned and stinks, but he only looks at me like he's sad. He should be dead, why is he not dead?! I'm scared...!

"Please," he begs. He puts his big human hands on my shoulders. I am frightened and I try to break free and run away, but he holds me close so I can't move. "My child that I love. Please protect Him."

"What?! What...?!" I know that this monster is the father of my Hiccup, but I don't understand. He is a monster, why is he-?

No no no no NO NO NO NO_ NO_! Hiccup! My precious human, it's not the monster queen I am holding it is _Hiccup_ in my arms, black and burned because I shot Him, I _shot Him_, I killed my Hiccup who I love most in all the worlds, He is dying He is leaving me...! "HICCUP! _HICCUP_!"

"Toothless...protect...my father..."

But I can't, I can't, His father is dead because I killed him, and now I have killed my Hiccup-?!

xXxXxXx

"NOOOO! NOOOO!"

"Toothless! Toothless, Toothless, wake _up_, I'm here, I'm right here-!"

"Hiccup! Hiccup...!"

"I'm right here...it's me, bud, I'm right here, it's okay, it's just a nightmare..."

I'm crying, and shaking. I know I'm hurting Hiccup because I'm holding Him too tight, but I can't make myself let go of Him. "No...! Nooo...!"

"I'm here, bud, I'm right here..."

Every night I have nightmares now, too. Sometimes I'm not screaming when I wake up, but a lot of times I am. Hiccup's nightmares don't come every night anymore, but they still come some nights, and sometimes I am the one waking Him up to pull Him into the real world instead of Him waking me.

"Hurt You...didn't hurt You...?"

"No, bud, no. Look."

A long time ago, Hiccup put a mod on all the chips so that we dragons can't shoot when we're asleep, so our humans will be safe even if we have nightmares. Now He shows me my records for tonight and I see His very good mod stopped me from shooting twice this time when I was asleep, and I'm glad He is safe but I'm still scared, scared maybe someday His good mod will fail and I will hurt Him when I dream horrible dreams...

"It's okay, Toothless. It's okay."

We can't sleep, so we fly. We fly far away from Berk where the night is quiet and dark and peaceful, and we land on a grassy cliff top with crooked little trees. We sit together to look out at the stars, and the dragons who followed us settle down around us. The Nightmare perches in a tree and pretends he only flew this far because he felt like it, one of the Zipplebacks curls up close to me, the other Zippleback and the Gronckles find some rocks to play a game with. Some of the Terrors go to nest with Hiccup, and the rest of them come to me.

Hiccup holds one of the little dragons in His arms and laughs. "You guys are never going to let us out of your sight again, are you..."

_"I promise I'll never abandon you again,"_ I tell my flockmates. They already knew that, but they were still anxious enough to follow me. I still feel bad for failing them.

Hiccup sighs. "Nightmares suck."

"_You_ 'suck,'" the Nightmare tells Him. His name is Dangerbait. He is offended.

"Ah! Not dragon Nightmares; I meant actual nightmares! Bad dreams. I dreamed that I set a death trap for Drago but my dad walked into it and got, and got killed instead, and I was trying to stop the bleeding but woke up in the middle of it because Toothless was screaming his head off, dreaming that he'd killed _me_..."

"Nightmares 'suck,'" I agree.

"You humans have stupid names for people," Dangerbait says, but he comes down from the tree and sprawls on the ground by Hiccup to show support, but pretending he doesn't care.

Hiccup shivers. He is cold, and Dangerbait is not close enough to warm Him. I pull Hiccup against my side and put my arm and my wing around Him.

His flesh is getting warmer and He stopped shivering; why is He not happy? "Toothless...you're kind of holding me like you'd hold your girlfriend."

"Blech. No girlfriend." I decided a long time ago that I don't want a mate, because then we will have to have babies and they will think they are more important than Hiccup and I'm not allowed to tell them they're not.

"...Whatever; you're warm." He sighs and lays His head on my shoulder. We watch the night for a while. The other dragons get tired and come to nest around us and fall asleep. "Heh...now I'm kind of hot." Hiccup pushes my arm and my wing away, so now I can lay my head on Him instead. He is all bony and not comfortable to rest on, but I like resting on Him anyway because it means He is close to me.

After a while Hiccup says, "You think he's watching over us or something?"

I think I know who He is talking about. "Dad is watching us?"

"I mean...I dunno. Maybe. It just makes me feel better to think that maybe he's..." He sighs. "Never mind."

If Dad is watching us, he will see that our Hiccup is chief now. Dad so very much wanted Hiccup to be chief and take care of his precious human flock. "Dad is proud of You."

"..."

I raise my head so I can look at Him. "He is. You are his good and precious child that he loves."

"I...I know."

"Why are You sad?"

"I just..." He is trembling a little now, and tearing up grass and leaves into little tiny bits, and I wish I hadn't said whatever I said to make Him hurt like this. "Toothless, you...you didn't really know him back when I was a kid...back when..." He sighs and pats me. "Toothless, you made my life _fantastic_. Before you, my life _sucked_."

"I'm the best?" I say, but I'm anxious because why is Hiccup so sad?

"Heh, you are the best, bud."

"Hiccup is the best, too."

"Well...because of _you_, I guess; but definitely not before you came along. Before you, I was..." Why is He smiling even though His heart is breaking? "You know the memory that keeps coming to me? If I could pick out just one memory of my father... It was when we were fighting the Red Death, and you pulled Dad out of that burning ship and we were about to go kick that freak's butt and then...Dad grabbed my arm and he said..."

"I remember that." It's a scary memory but a good one. That was a horrible and wonderful battle.

"_I'm proud to call you my son_," Hiccup says softly. "I just..._all those years_, my entire life, I'd wanted _so much_ for Dad to say that to me. And...and he finally did, and I almost didn't feel anything, I just...I'd finally found _you_, I'd finally found what I was meant for, my life finally had purpose and meaning and I felt _whole_...and then all of a sudden he says that to me, just a few weeks too late..."

"You didn't like it?" I am confused.

"No, I did. I mean, just, the timing was weird. Even if it had been just a few _hours_ before, when I tried to show everyone the truth with Hookfang..." He rubs his face with his hand. "But it's okay. Even though I'd finally found myself, even though I was all pumped and distracted with adrenaline, and all I could think about was being relieved you were safe and trying to come up with battle tactics, even though I finally didn't need to hear those words anymore...I'm still glad he said them."

He is crying a little now, but he is smiling at the same time, and his heart is not so broken anymore. "I can't count the number of times I screwed things up and disappointed him and let him down, but...even though my feelings were all messed up...I'm still glad he was finally proud of me. And..." His voice is very soft. "And I guess he proved at the end that...that he loved me more than anything."

"Duh."

"Well, it wasn't always obvious to _me_, okay!"

"Our Hiccup that we love. Proud of You."

"Thanks, bud..."

I look in my memories to find the one of Dad that I treasure most. "Hiccup?"

"Yeah?"

"Dad hated me. A long long time ago."

"Well...I mean, with the _war_ and everything..."

"Hated me and _scared_ of me. Not scared-scared, because he is so very strong, if we fought it would be a good fun fight. But he was _protection_-scared of me."

"Huh?"

"Scared to see strong awesome scary Night Fury close to his weak tiny Hiccup that he loves."

"...Thanks. And hey, if _I_ thought that Night Furies really were the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, I'd be kind of freaked out seeing one hanging around my kid, too."

"Yes, yes! Hated me."

"Toothless-"

"But then he changed."

"Well, yeah."

"Best memory. We went to fight the Outcasts. Dad came to me and he said, 'Listen to me, dragon. You make sure my child that I love comes home not hurt.' I said yes, of course, duh. He said, _'You are the one I trust most to keep my precious thing safe.'_ Then he hit me. Favorite best Dad memory."

"He hit you?"

I pretend I am looking at somebody and patting his shoulders with my big strong hands.

"Oh. Heh, Dad always did pack a punch, even when he didn't mean to..."

We talk some more, until we are sleepy. It used to hurt to talk about Dad or think about him, but not anymore. Not all the time. Hiccup still cries a little bit sometimes, but other times He laughs, and He smiles. Dad is a good person to remember.

The love between me and Dad and our precious Hiccup, that rotten Drago tried to poison it and break it, but he couldn't. He almost did, but he couldn't; our love is _strong_, stronger than any rottenness, stronger than dying.

"I love You, Hiccup."

Hiccup is mostly asleep curled up with our flockmates, but He is still awake enough to hear me. His eyes stay closed, but He smiles a little. "Love you too, bud."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: The end, finally. (Of _Trust_; not of _His Soul Reflects My Own_ as a whole.) My apologies for all the angst; this story was _supposed_ to just be a one-shot, but ended up at least twice as long as I expected...!

**[More concrit needed] Tell me honestly, do you think it was a relief that Toothless got his hand back, or was it a cop-out? Or both? (I wouldn't have gone through with it if I hadn't already thought of how to resolve it. *sweatdrop*)**

I'm not sure whether I prefer the idea that the Red Death noticed Tooth's absence during HTTYD1 and was angry about it, or didn't notice and/or care. I went with the former idea in this chapter, since it was a nightmare-warped memory rather than a true memory.

**And now, all those in need of a palate-cleanser can head over to "Proper Appreciation" (unless you're reading this on devART), to read a short one-shot about Toothless & Hiccup as six-year-olds. (If you **_**are**_** reading this on dA, the story's called **_**Scaring Away Monsters**_**.)**

I've got "Wounded" and "Dragon Training" (which turned out to have none of the world-building info I expected it to have -.-) in my notebooks; "Focus, Hiccup!" and "The Dragon Book" were mostly glossed over; and I'm currently working on "Forbidden Friendship" (which I had previously been stuck on, but the problem was finally solved). Once those scenes are typed, I'm debating whether or not to post them separately or altogether on FFN and AO3. (Any thoughts on that?)


End file.
